Chaning of Sys and System Password do not take affect

Hi,

Can somebody explain to me why if I alter the sys or system passwords on Oracle 8.1.7 the original and new passwords both work when logging in using svrmgrl. I am issuing the following command as a sysdba user:

alter user system identified by xxxx;

alter user sys identified by xxxx;

After channing the password, I can login as a system or sys using either the old or new password via svrmgrl.

I have tried to re-created the PWDxxxx file, but this does not help. I have tried to removed the service by using oradim and re-creating the service with a new internal password, but this does not help.

Any help would be appreciated.

Mike

hi,

i'm guessing you're on NT, but can you confirm this. also, what happens if you use a bogus password, does it still let you in? and do you have this problem using sqlplus? or only svrmgrl?

nick

nratanasin,

Yes, I am running NT. I justed tried a bogus password and that worked to. Any ideas?

Mike

nratanasin,

Sorry, I forgot to mention that if I used sqlplus only the new password works.

Mike

Does your NT user has a OS level authentication enabled ?

SVK,

How would I determine if my user has os level authentication enabled ?

Mike

Mike, could you post here your sqlnet.ora file. It is the key issue.

The password file is meant for INTERNAL and SYS as SYSDBA.

Julian,

The following is my sqlnet.ora file:

# SQLNET.ORA Network Configuration File: C:\oracle\ora81\network\admin\sqlnet.ora
# Generated by Oracle configuration tools.

SQLNET.AUTHENTICATION_SERVICES= (NTS)

NAMES.DIRECTORY_PATH= (TNSNAMES, ONAMES, HOSTNAME)


Mike

hey mike,

well, here's a couple of notes. first of all, your os user is in the NT user group ORA_DBA. you can see this by running NT's User Manager (usrmgr.exe). being in this group allows a few things:

1) when running svrmgrl or sqlplus, you can connect as INTERNAL and not get prompted for a password. if you remove yourself from the ORA_DBA group, you will get prompted for a password.

2) when running svrmgrl, you can connect anyone as sysdba! and it doesn't matter what password you type in! try it. connect any user as sysdba and it will connect you without regards to the password you typed. then check to see who you are connected as with:

SELECT username FROM user_users;

and you will see that you are currently connected as SYS, no matter who you try to connect as.

3) when running sqlplus, you can connect anyone as sysdba, but you must know the correct password! after being connected run:

SELECT username FROM user_users;

and you'll see that you are indeed connected as the correct user, but with sysdba privileges.


so anyway, all this was just to say that your passwords were never really messed up, svrmgrl was just not authenticating your user by passwords. in fact, it was just connecting you as INTERNAL whenever you tried to connect as sysdba. and being in the ORA_DBA group allowed you to do this.

sqlplus, on the other hand, doesn't try to connect you as INTERNAL whenever you connect as sysdba. but it does allow you to connect any user as sysdba, as long as the os user is in the ORA_DBA group. i personally never use svrmgrl. sqlplus has all of the same functionalities of svrmgrl; also svrmgrl is no longer existent in 9i (i think). and just a side note...if you want to run sqlplus without prompting you for a username (like svrmgrl does), just type 'sqlplus /nolog' at the command prompt.

so anyway, i don't really have a resolution for all this. but, hopefully this helps with your understanding of the problem. please let me know if there is still something you would like to resolve with this issue.

nick :)

Quote:

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Originally posted by mvanhouten
Julian,

The following is my sqlnet.ora file:

# SQLNET.ORA Network Configuration File: C:\oracle\ora81\network\admin\sqlnet.ora
# Generated by Oracle configuration tools.

SQLNET.AUTHENTICATION_SERVICES= (NTS)

NAMES.DIRECTORY_PATH= (TNSNAMES, ONAMES, HOSTNAME)


Mike

---

Mike,

Comment out SQLNET.AUTHENTICATION_SERVICES= (NTS) and tell me if you are being now able to log in with the old password.

Julian,

When I commented out the SQLNET.AUTHENTICATION_SERVICES= (NTS) phrase in my sqlnet.ora, that fixed my problem.

Thanks for everybodies help.

Mike

Quote:

---

Originally posted by mvanhouten
Julian,

When I commented out the SQLNET.AUTHENTICATION_SERVICES= (NTS) phrase in my sqlnet.ora, that fixed my problem.

Thanks for everybodies help.

Mike

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Mike,

Glad to hear your problem's solved. Note that NT behaves in a bit different way than Unix (concerning the above).