Oracle offers various authentication and audit features to protect data from unauthorized access. But what about data at rest in operating system files, backups or other storage media?
Protect Oracle Data At Rest With TDE
To protect data at rest, Oracle offers Transparent Data Encryption (TDE). With TDE you can encrypt sensitive data so that it is unreadable if the file it is stored in is exfiltrated or breached.
Data you encrypt with TDE is “transparently” decrypted when it is accessed by authorized users and applications. That is, decryption takes place without users even being aware that data is encrypted. Likewise, applications that process sensitive data can offer data encryption via TDE with little or no code changes.
Why use TDE? It helps ensure that your sensitive data is secure, supports compliance with a wide range of regulations like Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), HIPAA and PCI, and can simplify your overall encryption/decryption policy and operations.
Another benefit of TDE is that it is pretty fine-grained. You can encrypt data at the column level or the tablespace level. Column-level encryption is perfect for confidential data like social security numbers or credit card numbers that are stored in table columns.
When you encrypt a tablespace, all objects created in that tablespace are encrypted automatically. Tablespace level encryption works well for tables that store sensitive data in multiple columns, or for when you want to protect an entire table and not just individual columns. It’s also handy anytime you want to avoid doing a nitty-gritty analysis of each table column to determine which ones require encryption.
To enable decryption and prevent unauthorized decryption, TDE uses a two-tiered, key-based encryption architecture. It stores encryption keys in a keystore, a hardware or software security module separate from the database. You can centrally (and automatically) manage these keystores using Oracle Key Vault.
To encrypt a tablespace, TDE uses an externally stored master key to encrypt the TDE tablespace encryption key, which is used to encrypt/decrypt tablespace data. For column-level encryption, Oracle transparently accesses a TDE master encryption key to encrypt or decrypt the TDE table key, which then encrypts/decrypts column-level data in the table.
Encryption Best Practices
Of course, your encryption strategy should be integrated with your overall information security program. Best-practice security tips related to encryption include:
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- Start by determining how sensitive the data is. Data that requires the strongest protection can be encrypted using the AES256 algorithm. Conversely, you can encrypt less sensitive data in several ways that offer performance benefits.
- You also need to determine your approach to keystore protection based on data sensitivity. Options range from auto-login software keystores to hardware keystores. A separate keystore for TDE only is ideal if possible.
- To limit damage from compromised admin credentials or insider threats, consider assigning separate security admins for TDE and for the database(s).
- Backup your sensitive data using protected backup procedures.
- Be aware that column-level encrypted data is decrypted during expression evaluation and could potentially be accessed in the associated on-disk swap file.
- Also be aware that your Oracle data files could contain plaintext fragments (aka “ghost records” that were deleted logically from the table but still exist physically on-disk. These could potentially be accessed similarly to finding data on-disk after it has been deleted at the operating system level.
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For more information on TDE, see the Oracle Advanced Security Guide online.
For expert help and guidance with encryption, backup/recovery, high availability and other business continuity and security concerns, contact Buda Consulting for a security risk assessment—the first step to finding and closing the gaps in your database security.
