Oracle Database Secrets Engine

This secrets engine is a part of the Database Secrets Engine. If you have not read the Database Backend page, please do so now as it explains how to set up the database backend and gives an overview of how the engine functions.

Oracle is one of the supported plugins for the database secrets engine. It is capable of dynamically generating credentials based on configured roles for Oracle databases. It also supports Static Roles.

Capabilities

Setup

The Oracle Database Plugin does not live in the core Vault code tree and can be found at its own git repository here: hashicorp/vault-plugin-database-oracle

For linux/amd64, pre-built binaries can be found at the releases page

Before running the plugin you will need to have the the Oracle Instant Client library installed. These can be downloaded from Oracle. The libraries will need to be placed in the default library search path or defined in the ld.so.conf configuration files.

If you are running Vault with mlock enabled, you will need to enable ipc_lock capabilities for the plugin binary.

1. Enable the database secrets engine if it is not already enabled:

   $ vault secrets enable database
   Success! Enabled the database secrets engine at: database/
   

   By default, the secrets engine will enable at the name of the engine. To enable the secrets engine at a different path, use the -path argument.

2. Download and register the plugin:

   $ vault write sys/plugins/catalog/database/oracle-database-plugin \
       sha256="..." \
       command=vault-plugin-database-oracle
   

3. Configure Vault with the proper plugin and connection information:

   $ vault write database/config/my-oracle-database \
       plugin_name=oracle-database-plugin \
       connection_url="{{username}}/{{password}}@localhost:1521/OraDoc.localhost" \
       allowed_roles="my-role" \
       username="VAULT_SUPER_USER" \
       password="myreallysecurepassword"
   

If Oracle uses SSL, see the connecting using SSL example.

If the version of Oracle you are using has a container database, you will need to connect to one of the pluggable databases rather than the container database in the connection_url field.

1. It is highly recommended that you immediately rotate the "root" user's password, see Rotate Root Credentials for more details. This will ensure that only Vault is able to access the "root" user that Vault uses to manipulate dynamic & static credentials.

   Use caution: the root user's password will not be accessible once rotated so it is highly recommended that you create a user for Vault to utilize rather than using the actual root user.

2. Configure a role that maps a name in Vault to an SQL statement to execute to create the database credential:

   $ vault write database/roles/my-role \
       db_name=my-oracle-database \
       creation_statements='CREATE USER {{username}} IDENTIFIED BY "{{password}}"; GRANT CONNECT TO {{username}}; GRANT CREATE SESSION TO {{username}};' \
       default_ttl="1h" \
       max_ttl="24h"
   Success! Data written to: database/roles/my-role
   

   Note: The creation_statements may be specified in a file and interpreted by the Vault CLI using the @ symbol:

   $ vault write database/roles/my-role \
       creation_statements=@creation_statements.sql \
       ...
   

   See the Commands docs for more details.

Connect Using SSL

If the Oracle server Vault is trying to connect to uses an SSL listener, the database plugin will require additional configuration using the connection_url parameter:

vault write database/config/oracle \
  plugin_name=vault-plugin-database-oracle \
  connection_url='{{ username }}/{{ password }}@(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcps)(HOST=<host>)(PORT=<port>))(CONNECT_DATA=(SERVICE_NAME=<service_name>))(SECURITY=(SSL_SERVER_CERT_DN="<cert_dn>")(MY_WALLET_DIRECTORY=<path_to_wallet>)))' \
  allowed_roles="my-role" \
  username="admin" \
  password="password"

For example, the SSL server certificate distinguished name and path to the Oracle Wallet to use for connection and verification could be configured using:

vault write database/config/oracle \
  plugin_name=vault-plugin-database-oracle \
  connection_url='{{ username }}/{{ password }}@(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcps)(HOST=hashicorp.com)(PORT=1523))(CONNECT_DATA=(SERVICE_NAME=ORCL))(SECURITY=(SSL_SERVER_CERT_DN="CN=hashicorp.com,OU=TestCA,O=HashiCorp=com")(MY_WALLET_DIRECTORY=/etc/oracle/wallets)))' \
  allowed_roles="my-role" \
  username="admin" \
  password="password"

Using TNS Names

Vault can optionally use TNS Names in the connection string when connecting to Oracle databases using a tnsnames.ora file. An example of a tnsnames.ora file may look like the following:

AWSEAST=
(DESCRIPTION =
  (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCPS)(HOST = hashicorp.us-east-1.rds.amazonaws.com)(PORT = 1523))
  (CONNECT_DATA =
    (SERVER = DEDICATED)
    (SID = ORCL)
  )
  (SECURITY =
      (SSL_SERVER_CERT_DN = "CN=hashicorp.rds.amazonaws.com/OU=RDS/O=Amazon.com/L=Seattle/ST=Washington/C=US")
      (MY_WALLET_DIRECTORY = /etc/oracle/wallet/east)
  )
)

AWSWEST=
(DESCRIPTION =
  (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCPS)(HOST = hashicorp.us-west-1.rds.amazonaws.com)(PORT = 1523))
  (CONNECT_DATA =
    (SERVER = DEDICATED)
    (SID = ORCL)
  )
  (SECURITY =
      (SSL_SERVER_CERT_DN = "CN=hashicorp.rds.amazonaws.com/OU=RDS/O=Amazon.com/L=Seattle/ST=Washington/C=US")
      (MY_WALLET_DIRECTORY = /etc/oracle/wallet/west)
  )
)

To configure Vault to use TNS names, set the following environment variable on the Vault server:

TNS_ADMIN=/path/to/tnsnames/directory

Finally, use the alias in the connection_url parameter on the database configuration:

vault write database/config/oracle-east \
    plugin_name=vault-plugin-database-oracle \
    connection_url="{{ username }}/{{ password }}@AWSEAST" \
    allowed_roles="my-role" \
    username="VAULT_SUPER_USER" \
    password="myreallysecurepassword"
 
vault write database/config/oracle-west \
    plugin_name=vault-plugin-database-oracle \
    connection_url="{{ username }}/{{ password }}@AWSWEST" \
    allowed_roles="my-role" \
    username="VAULT_SUPER_USER" \
    password="myreallysecurepassword"

Usage

Dynamic Credentials

After the secrets engine is configured and a user/machine has a Vault token with the proper permission, it can generate credentials.

1. Generate a new credential by reading from the /creds endpoint with the name of the role:

   $ vault read database/creds/my-role
   Key                Value
   ---                -----
   lease_id           database/creds/my-role/2f6a614c-4aa2-7b19-24b9-ad944a8d4de6
   lease_duration     1h
   lease_renewable    true
   password           yRUSyd-vPYDg5NkU9kDg
   username           V_VAULTUSE_MY_ROLE_SJJUK3Q8W3BKAYAN8S62_1602543009
   

API

The full list of configurable options can be seen in the Oracle database plugin API page.

For more information on the database secrets engine's HTTP API please see the Database secrets engine API page.