Re: ODBC Access to Oracle

[Mahmud Rahman <mrahman () MILLS EDU>]

We have allowed ODBC access to Banner for over 20 years. A small number of
power users use MS Access and Excel to report from Banner using ODBC
connections. Our DBA grants query access only to certain roles that have
access to sets of Oracle tables and views. No updates/inserts are allowed
this way.

-Mahmud

Mahmud Rahman MFA '04
Director of Systems and Banner Services, ITS
Mills College, Oakland CA
(510)430-2257
mrahman () mills edu

On Wed, Aug 15, 2018 at 7:58 AM, Theresa Rowe <rowe () oakland edu> wrote:

> We allow reporting access via ODBC to Banner.  In fact it is still our
> primary report development tool.  We do not review the report development
> prior to use in production.  We do not allow any table updates of any kind
> using this method.  It is read-only.
>
> Theresa
>
> On Wed, Aug 15, 2018 at 10:18 AM George J. Silowash <gsilowas () norwich edu>
> wrote:
>
> > Hello,
> >
> >
> >
> > I am currently researching the security implications of allowing ODBC
> > access to an Oracle database, in particular, Ellucian Banner.  I have a
> > user requesting ODBC access to the Banner database. My gut feeling is to
> > prohibit this access, but I need more information.
> >
> >
> >
> > Does anyone have best practices for implementing this? Or, what are the
> > reasons for prohibiting access? I am most concerned about:
> >
> >
> >
> > -Data integrity
> >
> > -Access control of tables and fields
> >
> > -Accidental database denial of service (a query that is not constrained
> > appropriately, etc.)
> >
> >
> >
> > Is Oracle security enforced on an ODBC connection? Some research on other
> > applications implies that it is not. Any help or guidance would be greatly
> > appreciated.
> >
> >
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > George
> >
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > *George J. Silowash, MSIA, CISSP-ISSMP, CCFP, GCFE*
> >
> > *Chief Information Security Officer*
> >
> > Norwich University
> >
> > 158 Harmon Drive
> > <https://maps.google.com/?q=158+Harmon+Drive+%0D%0A+Northfield+VT+05663&entry=gmail&source=g>
> >
> > Northfield VT 05663
> > <https://maps.google.com/?q=158+Harmon+Drive+%0D%0A+Northfield+VT+05663&entry=gmail&source=g>
> >
> > http://www.norwich.edu
>
>
> --
> Theresa Rowe
> Chief Information Officer
> Oakland University