Monday, April 5, 2021

Oracle TDE encryption - Encrypting my pluggable database

 This is post #1 in a series of posts explaining how to implement TDE (Transparent Data Encryption). In this first post I will take my Multitenant 19c database (remember Multitenant is mandatory with 21c) and configure TDE in my 3 (no extra license needed) pluggable databases.


The database I created for this example contains 3 PDBs as this will give me the flexibility to unplug and move PDBs around.

The names I used are

  • TDETEST - This is my CDB, and I will only be encrypting users tablespace and the catalog.
  • TDEPDB1,TDEPDB2, TDEPDB3 - My 3 PDBs. I will be encrypted all user tablespaces that make up these 3 PDBS .

Since I have only a single instance, the location I chose to put the local wallet file is under  $ORACLE_BASE/admin/$ORACLE_SID/wallet (/home/oracle/app/oracle/admin/tdetest/admin).

In a RAC environment you have a few choices of where to put the wallet file. The most important thing though, is to ensure each node has an identical copy in a RAC environment.

In a RAC environment you can put the wallet file:

  • On the local file system on each node, but be sure they are all identical. It is best to put them within the $ORACLE_BASE to make it easier in an out-of-place upgrade.
  • On a shared filesystem. This can be ACFS, DBFS, or just NFS.
  • With ASM. It is possible to set the location to be an ASM file for example "+DATA/TDETEST/wallet"
NOTE:  When deciding where to store your TDE wallet there are 2 items to keep in mind.
 1) You need to backup your wallet. Without the wallet file you can't access your database. Once encryption is implemented, the wallet needs to be available.
2) The wallet needs to be backed up separate from the database. If the wallet and the Database backup are stored together, anyone can read the backup.

 

 In my further blogs I will be converting from using a local wallet file to store my encryption keys, to using OKV along with a local wallet that caches the autologin information.

To migrate to TDE, I chose to perform the quickest method "Restore tablespace as encrypted".  With my test database, I did not have a standby database. 

NOTE: With a standby database the fastest way to convert to TDE would be with a "standby first" strategy. This is explained in this MAA document which includes an automated procedure. With this strategy you would convert your standby database to utilize TDE with a restore as encrypted, while the primary database stays untouched. Once the standby is converted, you would perform a switchover (to the standby) and encrypt the "current standby", which was the primary. Once both are encrypted, you would switch back and the process is completed.


Step 1 - Perform a full backup of the database immediately prior to starting the process.  Since I am using "restore tablespace as encrypted" this will allow me to open the database with minimal recovery.  Once backed up, you also should create a restore point to quickly identify the point after the full backup prior to the encryption.

create restore point pretde;

Step 2 - Set the location of the wallet_root, and the tde configuration.  I chose to use the WALLET_ROOT parameter (new with 19 I believe) because it gives the most flexibility.  Keep in mind in order to go through step 2 completely the database will need to be bounced.


alter system set WALLET_ROOT='/home/oracle/app/oracle/admin/tdetest/wallet/' scope=spfile;

startup force;

alter system set tde_configuration='KEYSTORE_CONFIGURATION=FILE' scope=both;


Step 3 - We are going to take a look at the database and the parameters that are set for the encryption wallet. Below is the formatted query I am going to be using throughout this post.



Below is the output of the query and the current settings as of this point. You can see that there are rows for all my PDBs, and that the status is "NOT_AVAILABLE" since I have not created a wallet or any  master keys yet. You can also see that the keystore is UNITED, meaning that all the keys (both for the CDB and all the PDBs) are assumed to be contained in the same Wallet file.

Also note that the WRL_PARAMETER is set based on the WALLET_ROOT setting. The TDE wallet file is defaulted to be the WALLET_ROOT/tde directory for the CDB.

PDB Name   Type       WRL_PARAMETER                                      Status                         WALLET_TYPE          KEYSTORE Backed Up
---------- ---------- -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ -------------------- -------- ----------
CDB$ROOT   FILE       /home/oracle/app/oracle/admin/tdetest/wallet//tde/ NOT_AVAILABLE                  UNKNOWN              NONE     UNDEFINED
PDB$SEED   FILE                                                          NOT_AVAILABLE                  UNKNOWN              UNITED   UNDEFINED
TDEPDB1    FILE                                                          NOT_AVAILABLE                  UNKNOWN              UNITED   UNDEFINED
TDEPDB2    FILE                                                          NOT_AVAILABLE                  UNKNOWN              UNITED   UNDEFINED
TDEPDB3    FILE                                                          NOT_AVAILABLE                  UNKNOWN              UNITED   UNDEFINED



Step 4. Now I need to create the keystore and open it for the CDB, and all my individual PDBs. Note that each PDB shares the keystore with the CDB. In isolated mode, I would create an individual keystore for each PDB and they would be in subdirectories under the WALLET_ROOT location.  

But first I need to create the directory to hold the keystore wallet.

mkdir /home/oracle/app/oracle/admin/tdetest/wallet/tde
ADMINISTER KEY MANAGEMENT CREATE KEYSTORE '/home/oracle/app/oracle/admin/tdetest/wallet/tde' IDENTIFIED BY "F1LE2021!";

ADMINISTER KEY MANAGEMENT SET KEYSTORE OPEN IDENTIFIED BY "F1LE2021!";
alter session set container=tdepdb1; ADMINISTER KEY MANAGEMENT SET KEYSTORE OPEN IDENTIFIED BY "F1LE2021!" CONTAINER = CURRENT;
alter session set container=tdepdb2; ADMINISTER KEY MANAGEMENT SET KEYSTORE OPEN IDENTIFIED BY "F1LE2021!" CONTAINER = CURRENT;
alter session set container=tdepdb3; ADMINISTER KEY MANAGEMENT SET KEYSTORE OPEN IDENTIFIED BY "F1LE2021!" CONTAINER = CURRENT;

Now let's look at the encryption settings in v$encryption_wallet. Below you can see that there is a single wallet setting (UNITED keystore), and the status is "OPEN_NO_MASTER_KEY". The master key has not been set for CDB, or the PDBs.

PDB Name   Type       WRL_PARAMETER                                      Status                         WALLET_TYPE          KEYSTORE Backed Up
---------- ---------- -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ -------------------- -------- ----------
CDB$ROOT   FILE       /home/oracle/app/oracle/admin/tdetest/wallet//tde/ OPEN_NO_MASTER_KEY             PASSWORD             NONE     UNDEFINED
PDB$SEED   FILE                                                          CLOSED                         UNKNOWN              UNITED   UNDEFINED
TDEPDB1    FILE                                                          OPEN_NO_MASTER_KEY             PASSWORD             UNITED   UNDEFINED
TDEPDB2    FILE                                                          OPEN_NO_MASTER_KEY             PASSWORD             UNITED   UNDEFINED
TDEPDB3    FILE                                                          OPEN_NO_MASTER_KEY             PASSWORD             UNITED   UNDEFINED

Step 5. Now we create the master keys for the CDB and each PDB.  A master key is needed to encrypt the tablespace encryption keys stored in the datafiles. 

NOTE: I added a tag that identifies the key with the CDB or PDB it is created for. I highly recommend using tags to identify the keys within the wallet. Identifying the master encryption key for an individual PDB will be important when moving PDBs between CDBs.


ADMINISTER KEY MANAGEMENT SET encryption KEY using tag 'TDETEST MASTERKEY_APRIL19' IDENTIFIED BY "F1LE2021!" WITH BACKUP USING 'TDETEST_TDEKEY_APR1_backup';
alter session set container=tdepdb1;
ADMINISTER KEY MANAGEMENT SET encryption KEY using tag 'TDEPDB1 MASTERKEY_APRIL19' IDENTIFIED BY "F1LE2021!" WITH BACKUP USING 'TDEPDB1_TDEKEY_APR1_backup'  container=current;
alter session set container=tdepdb2; ADMINISTER KEY MANAGEMENT SET encryption KEY using tag 'TDEPDB2 MASTERKEY_APRIL19' IDENTIFIED BY "F1LE2021!" WITH BACKUP USING 'TDEPDB2_TDEKEY_APR1_backup' container=current;
alter session set container=tdepdb3; ADMINISTER KEY MANAGEMENT SET encryption KEY using tag 'TDEPDB3 MASTERKEY_APRIL19' IDENTIFIED BY "F1LE2021!" WITH BACKUP USING 'TDEPDB3_TDEKEY_APR1_backup' container=current;

And once again let's look at the settings in v$encryption_wallet.  This time you will see that the wallet is open for all CDBs/PDBs except for the PDB$SEED. The wallet type is "PASSWORD" which means that the wallet needs to be manually opened with a password.

PDB Name   Type       WRL_PARAMETER                                      Status                         WALLET_TYPE          KEYSTORE Backed Up
---------- ---------- -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ -------------------- -------- ----------
CDB$ROOT   FILE       /home/oracle/app/oracle/admin/tdetest/wallet//tde/ OPEN                           PASSWORD             NONE     NO
PDB$SEED   FILE                                                          CLOSED                         UNKNOWN              UNITED   UNDEFINED
TDEPDB1    FILE                                                          OPEN                           PASSWORD             UNITED   NO
TDEPDB2    FILE                                                          OPEN                           PASSWORD             UNITED   NO
TDEPDB3    FILE                                                          OPEN                           PASSWORD             UNITED   NO


Step 6 - We have the master keys set and the wallets are open.  We now need to implement TDE by encrypted the tablespaces in my PDBs. As I said before, in my example, I used "restore tablespace as encrypted". 

Another option is to encrypt online (as of 12c). In this process the database will encrypt each datafile sequentially while the database is online and active.

NOTE : If using online encryption be aware that

  • It takes much longer than performing a restore, as datafiles are encrypted sequentially. Using "restore tablespace as encrypted" You can parallelize the restore across multiple channels.
  • The process needs enough space for 2 copies of the largest datafile. If using bigfiles, this can be quite a bit of storage. 
  • You need to monitor the process to ensure it completes successfully.

Next step is I am going to startup mount and open the wallets, restore my 3 PDBs users tablespaces, along with the users tablespace in my CDB, and then recover and open the database.


sqlplus> shutdown immediate;
sqlplus> startup mount;
sqlplus> ADMINISTER KEY MANAGEMENT SET KEYSTORE OPEN IDENTIFIED BY "F1LE2021!";
sqlplus> alter session set container=tdepdb1;
sqlplus> ADMINISTER KEY MANAGEMENT SET KEYSTORE OPEN IDENTIFIED BY "F1LE2021!" CONTAINER = CURRENT;
sqlplus> alter session set container=tdepdb2;
sqlplus> ADMINISTER KEY MANAGEMENT SET KEYSTORE OPEN IDENTIFIED BY "F1LE2021!"  CONTAINER = CURRENT;
sqlplus> alter session set container=tdepdb3;
sqlplus> SDMINISTER KEY MANAGEMENT SET KEYSTORE OPEN IDENTIFIED BY "F1LE2021!"  CONTAINER = CURRENT;

rman target / catalog rmancat/oracle@rmancat

rman> restore tablespace users as encrypted;

rman> restore tablespace tdepdb1:users  as encrypted;
rman> restore tablespace tdepdb2:users  as encrypted;
rman> restore tablespace tdepdb3:users as encrypted;
rman> recover database; rman> alter database open;

Step 7 - Make sure all new tablespaces are encrypted by default

 In order to ensure all new tablespaces are encrypted I am going to set the database parameter.

sql> alter system set encrypt_new_tablespaces = ALWAYS scope = both sid = '*';

Step 8 - Encrypt all credentials that contained in the root container

In order to encrypt all credentials (like scheduler credentials, and DB Link credentials) that are stored in the system catalogs, you need to login as a user granted "SYSKM" role and execute

sql> alter database dictionary encrypt credentials container = current;

Step 9 - I am going to verify that the pluggable databases are encrypted, along with the catalog. 

First let's look at the existing keys using the query below


I can see the keys that are created in each container, including the ROOT

PDB Name        Activation Time            Key ID                                                  Tag
--------------- -------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------
CDB$ROOT        19-Apr-2021 05:12:41pm     AbwcWGicr0+rvyhrSB+rKQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA    TDETEST MASTERKEY_APRIL19

TDEPDB1         19-Apr-2021 05:19:11pm     AX9pkB+zQE/Wv6Qek13TeLkAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA    TDEPDB1 MASTERKEY_APRIL19

TDEPDB2         19-Apr-2021 05:19:11pm     AUKkROD1TE8wv0jfJhN63JYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA    TDEPDB2 MASTERKEY_APRIL19

TDEPDB3         19-Apr-2021 05:19:13pm     AZUWZDWpxk9sv0GrljDFr7sAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA    TDEPDB3 MASTERKEY_APRIL19



I am going to use the query below to look at the encryption setting on each datafile.


Below is the output. I see that all the datafiles were properly encrypted and are available.

PDB Name        Tablespace Name                Encrypted  Master Key ID
--------------- ------------------------------ ---------- ------------------------------------------------------------
CDB$ROOT        SYSAUX                         NO         AbwcWGicr0+rvyhrSB+rKQA=
                SYSTEM                         NO         AbwcWGicr0+rvyhrSB+rKQA=
                TEMP                           NO         AbwcWGicr0+rvyhrSB+rKQA=
                UNDOTBS1                       NO         AbwcWGicr0+rvyhrSB+rKQA=
                USERS                          YES        AbwcWGicr0+rvyhrSB+rKQA=

TDEPDB1         SYSAUX                         NO         AX9pkB+zQE/Wv6Qek13TeLk=
                SYSTEM                         NO         AX9pkB+zQE/Wv6Qek13TeLk=
                TEMP                           NO         AX9pkB+zQE/Wv6Qek13TeLk=
                UNDOTBS1                       YES        AX9pkB+zQE/Wv6Qek13TeLk=
                USERS                          YES        AX9pkB+zQE/Wv6Qek13TeLk=

TDEPDB2         SYSAUX                         NO         AUKkROD1TE8wv0jfJhN63JY=
                SYSTEM                         NO         AUKkROD1TE8wv0jfJhN63JY=
                TEMP                           NO         AUKkROD1TE8wv0jfJhN63JY=
                UNDOTBS1                       YES        AUKkROD1TE8wv0jfJhN63JY=
                USERS                          YES        AUKkROD1TE8wv0jfJhN63JY=

TDEPDB3         SYSAUX                         NO         AZUWZDWpxk9sv0GrljDFr7s=
                SYSTEM                         NO         AZUWZDWpxk9sv0GrljDFr7s=
                TEMP                           NO         AZUWZDWpxk9sv0GrljDFr7s=
                UNDOTBS1                       YES        AZUWZDWpxk9sv0GrljDFr7s=
                USERS                          YES        AZUWZDWpxk9sv0GrljDFr7s=


And I am going to look at the catalog to be sure

select enforcement from DICTIONARY_CREDENTIALS_ENCRYPT;

ENFORCEM
--------
ENABLED


Step 10 - I am adding the ability to access the keystore without having to enter the password. This can make it much easier to open the keystore if you don't chose to make the Keystore Wallet AUTO_LOGON.

I am putting my keystore password in an AUTO_LOGIN wallet as a secret.  This wallet needs to be created in a directory called TDE_SEPS. In my case since, I am using WALLET_ROOT, the directory containing the secret must be WALLET_ROOT/tde_seps.

The password portion of "ADMINISTER KEY" becomes IDENTIFIED by EXTERNAL STORE;

NOTE: I am using the phrase "FOR CLIENT 'TDE_WALLET'"
              'TDE_WALLET' is necessary to


ADMINISTER KEY MANAGEMENT
     ADD SECRET 'F1LE2021!' FOR CLIENT 'TDE_WALLET'
     USING TAG 'TDE file keystore password' 
     TO LOCAL AUTO_LOGIN KEYSTORE '/home/oracle/app/oracle/admin/tdetest/wallet/tde_seps';

Now to verify it I am going to restart my database and open the wallet using the external store (rather than hardcoding in the password).

ADMINISTER KEY MANAGEMENT SET KEYSTORE OPEN IDENTIFIED BY EXTERNAL STORE;

alter session set container=tdepdb1;
ADMINISTER KEY MANAGEMENT SET KEYSTORE OPEN IDENTIFIED BY EXTERNAL STORE CONTAINER = CURRENT;
alter pluggable database  open;

alter session set container=tdepdb2;
ADMINISTER KEY MANAGEMENT SET KEYSTORE OPEN IDENTIFIED BY EXTERNAL STORE  CONTAINER = CURRENT;
alter pluggable database  open;

alter session set container=tdepdb3;
ADMINISTER KEY MANAGEMENT SET KEYSTORE OPEN IDENTIFIED BY EXTERNAL STORE CONTAINER = CURRENT;
alter pluggable database  open;

And finally verify that that the Keystores are open (using the external store) for my CDB and PDBs.
PDB Name   Type       WRL_PARAMETER                                      Status                         WALLET_TYPE          KEYSTORE Backed Up
---------- ---------- -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ -------------------- -------- ----------
CDB$ROOT   FILE       /home/oracle/app/oracle/admin/tdetest/wallet//tde/ OPEN                           PASSWORD             NONE     NO
PDB$SEED   FILE                                                          CLOSED                         UNKNOWN              UNITED   UNDEFINED
TDEPDB1    FILE                                                          OPEN                           PASSWORD             UNITED   NO
TDEPDB2    FILE                                                          OPEN                           PASSWORD             UNITED   NO
TDEPDB3    FILE                                                          OPEN                           PASSWORD             UNITED   NO



Step 11 - I am going to change the wallets to be AUTO_LOGIN, bounce the database and verify that the encryption settings are all correct.

sqlplus / as sysdba

sql> ADMINISTER KEY MANAGEMENT SET KEYSTORE CLOSE IDENTIFIED BY EXTERNAL STORE;
sql> ADMINISTER KEY MANAGEMENT CREATE AUTO_LOGIN KEYSTORE FROM KEYSTORE '/home/oracle/app/oracle/admin/tdetest/wallet/tde/' IDENTIFIED BY "
F1LE2021!";

sql> shutdown immediate
sql> startup

And v$encryption_wallet shows me that my wallets are all open, and that they are AUTOLOGIN.

PDB Name   Type       WRL_PARAMETER                                      Status                         WALLET_TYPE          KEYSTORE Backed Up
---------- ---------- -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ -------------------- -------- ----------
CDB$ROOT   FILE       /home/oracle/app/oracle/admin/tdetest/wallet//tde/ OPEN                           AUTOLOGIN            NONE     NO
PDB$SEED   FILE                                                          OPEN                           AUTOLOGIN            UNITED   NO
TDEPDB1    FILE                                                          OPEN                           AUTOLOGIN            UNITED   NO
TDEPDB2    FILE                                                          OPEN                           AUTOLOGIN            UNITED   NO
TDEPDB3    FILE                                                          OPEN                           AUTOLOGIN            UNITED   NO

Now I am ready to perform a new FULL backup of the pluggable databases, and they are ready for use.

That's all there is to implementing TDE with a wallet file. Next post, I am going to convert my wallet to OKV managed wallets.

 

1 comment:

  1. Hi Bryan..really nice article. Could you please also suggest way to upgrade TDE enabled 11g database to 19c PDB ? I belive it needs upgrade and plugging work..

    But I am bit confused, how to handle keys with upgrade and plugging

    ReplyDelete