The passwords in Oracle11g are case sensitive. All new users created in the 11g database have case sensitive password by default. For databases upgraded from earlier releases, the passwords are not case sensitive for existing accounts. They become case sensitive when you change password. A new column PASSWORD_VERSIONS is added to DBA_USERS view. A value ‘10G 11G’ in this column indicates that case sensitivity is enforced for the account.
The PASSWORD column is still available in DBA_USERS view, it is not populated anymore. For external authenticated or global accounts, the PASSWORD column indicates such.
select username, password_versions, password from dba_users; USERNAME PASSWORD PASSWORD ------------------------------ -------- --------------- MGMT_VIEW 10G 11G SYS 10G 11G SYSTEM 10G 11G SAMUEL EXTERNAL BTHOMAS 10G 11G ANONYMOUS XDB 10G 11G
Disable Case Sensitive Passwords
Oracle11g has a new parameter to disable the password case sensitivity – SEC_CASE_SENSITIVE_LOGON. This parameter is set to TRUE by default. Change to FALSE for pre-Oracle11g password behavior. This parameter can be changed using ALTER SYSTEM.
SYSDBA/SYSOPER password
The password file created using orapwd utility is also case sensitive by default. To make the password for SYS and SYSDBA/SYSOPER case insensitive, include flag ingnorecase=y in the command line.
$ orapwd file=L11GR1.ora ignorecase=y Enter password for SYS:
DB Links
When connecting to an Oracle11g database with default SEC_CASE_SENSITIVE_LOGON using a database link from pre-11g database, make sure the database password in Oracle11g database is set up as ALL UPPERCASE. Pre-Oracle11g databases send password in uppercase for db link connections. For 11g to 11g, the password case must be the same; for 11g to pre-11g database, the password case does not matter.
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To Pre-Oracle11g
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To Oracle11g
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From Pre-Oracle11g
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Case does not matter
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Uppercase
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From Oracle11g
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Case does not matter
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Same case
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Users with default passwords
Oracle11g has a new very useful view to list the database accounts that have default password – DBA_USERS_WITH_DEFPWD. This view has only one column – USERNAME. By default the Oracle system accounts and example accounts are locked in Oracle11g.
select * from dba_users_with_defpwd; USERNAME ------------------------------ DIP MDSYS WK_TEST CTXSYS HR OUTLN EXFSYS SCOTT MDDATA ORDPLUGINS ORDSYS XDB SI_INFORMTN_SCHEMA WMSYS