ALTER USER
Purpose
Use the ALTER
USER
statement:
-
To change the authentication or database resource characteristics of a database user
-
To permit a proxy server to connect as a client without authentication
-
In an Oracle Automatic Storage Management (Oracle ASM) cluster, to change the password of a user in the password file that is local to the Oracle ASM instance of the current node
See Also:
Oracle Database Security Guide for detailed information about user authentication methods
Prerequisites
In general, you must have the ALTER
USER
system privilege. However, the current user can change his or her own password without this privilege.
To change the SYS
password, password file must exist, and an account granted alter user privilege must have the SYSDBA
administrative role in order to have the ability to change SYS
password.
You must be authenticated AS
SYSASM
to change the password of a user other than yourself in an Oracle ASM instance password file.
To specify the CONTAINER
clause, you must be connected to a multitenant container database (CDB). If the current container is the root, then you can specify CONTAINER
=
ALL
or CONTAINER
=
CURRENT
. If the current container is a pluggable database (PDB), then you can specify only CONTAINER
=
CURRENT
.
To set and modify CONTAINER_DATA
attributes using the container_data_clause
, you must be connected to a CDB and the current container must be the root.
Syntax
container_data_clause::=
db_user_proxy_clauses::=
Semantics
The keywords, parameters, and clauses described in this section are unique to ALTER
USER
or have different semantics than they have in CREATE
USER
. Keywords, parameters, and clauses that do not appear here have the same meaning as in the CREATE
USER
statement.
Note:
Oracle recommends that user names and passwords be encoded in ASCII or EBCDIC characters only, depending on your platform.
See Also:
CREATE USER for information on the keywords and parameters and CREATE PROFILE for information on assigning limits on database resources to a user
IDENTIFIED Clause
BY password
Specify BY
password
to specify a new password for the user. Passwords are case sensitive. Any subsequent CONNECT
string used to connect this user to the database must specify the password using the same case (upper, lower, or mixed) that is used in this ALTER
USER
statement. Passwords can contain single-byte, or multibyte characters, or both from your database character set.
Note:
Oracle Database expects a different timestamp for each resetting of a particular password. If you reset one password multiple times within one second (for example, by cycling through a set of passwords using a script), then the database may return an error message that the password cannot be reused. For this reason, Oracle recommends that you avoid using scripts to reset passwords.
You can omit the REPLACE
clause if you are setting your own password or you have the ALTER
USER
system privilege and you are changing another user's password. However, unless you have the ALTER
USER
system privilege, you must always specify the REPLACE
clause if a password complexity verification function has been enabled, either by running the UTLPWDMG.SQL
script or by specifying such a function in the PASSWORD_VERIFY_FUNCTION
parameter of a profile that has been assigned to the user.
In an Oracle ASM cluster, you can use this clause to change the password of a user in the password file that is local to an Oracle ASM instance of the current node. You must be authenticated AS
SYSASM
to specify IDENTIFIED
BY
password
without the REPLACE
old_password
clause. If you are not authenticated AS
SYSASM
, then you can only change your own password by specifying REPLACE
old_password
.
Oracle Database does not check the old password, even if you provide it in the REPLACE
clause, unless you are changing your own existing password.
Changing a Password to Begin the Gradual Database Password Rollover Period
Prerequisite
Enable gradual database password rollover period by setting a non-zero value to the PASSWORD_ROLLOVER_TIME
user profile parameter using CREATE PROFILE
or ALTER PROFILE
.
After you set the PASSWORD_ROLLOVER_TIME
to specify the duration of the gradual password rollover period in the profile of the user, you can use the ALTER USER
statement to change the user's password, which will allow clients to login using both the old password and the new password until the password rollover period expires.
During the password rollover period, you must propagate the new password to all clients (before the PASSWORD_ROLLOVER_TIME
ends). If you successfully propagated the new password to all clients early (before the end of the password rollover period), then you can use the EXPIRE PASSWORD ROLLOVER PERIOD
clause to end the password rollover (finalizing the password change, so that only the new password can be used).
Changing a Password During the Gradual Database Password Rollover Period
You can change the password during the password rollover period (before the rollover period expires) using ALTER USER
with or without the REPLACE
clause.
For example, say user u1
has an original password p1
, and p2
is the new password that started the rollover process. Now you want to switch to p3
instead of p2
. You can use any one of the statements to change the password to p3
:
ALTER USER u1 IDENTIFIED BY p3;
ALTER USER u1 IDENTIFIED BY p3 REPLACE p1;
ALTER USER u1 IDENTIFIED BY p3 REPLACE p2;
After you change the password to p3
, the user can log in using either p1
or p3
. Logging in with p2
returns error Invalid credential or not authorized; logon denied
and is recorded as a failed login attempt.
The rollover start time remains set to the password change timestamp, this is the time the password of the user was changed. The rollover start time and password change time are not affected by any further password change made during the password rollover period. The old password can be used for at most PASSWORD_ROLLOVER_TIME
days.
See Also:
-
Oracle Database Security Guide for guidelines on creating passwords
GLOBALLY
Refer to CREATE USER for more information on this clause.
You can change a user's access verification method from IDENTIFIED
GLOBALLY
to either IDENTIFIED
BY
password
or IDENTIFIED
EXTERNALLY
. You can change a user's access verification method to IDENTIFIED
GLOBALLY
from one of the other methods only if all external roles granted explicitly to the user are revoked.
EXTERNALLY
Refer to CREATE USER for more information on this clause.
See Also:
Oracle Database Enterprise User Security Administrator's Guide for more information on globally and externally identified users, "Changing User Identification: Example", and "Changing User Authentication: Examples"
NO AUTHENTICATION Clause
Use this clause to change an existing user account with authentication to a schema account without authentication to prevent logins to the account.
DEFAULT COLLATION Clause
Use this clause to change the default collation for the schema owned by the user. The new default collation is assigned to tables, views, and materialized views that are subsequently created in the schema. It does not influence default collations for existing tables views, and materialized views. Refer to the DEFAULT COLLATION Clause clause of CREATE
USER
for the full semantics of this clause.
DEFAULT TABLESPACE Clause
Use this clause to assign or reassign a tablespace for the user's permanent segments. This clause overrides any default tablespace that has been specified for the database.
Restriction on Default Tablespaces
You cannot specify a locally managed temporary tablespace, including an undo tablespace, or a dictionary-managed temporary tablespace, as a user's default tablespace.
[LOCAL] TEMPORARY TABLESPACE Clause
Use this clause to assign or reassign a temporary tablespace or tablespace group for the user's temporary segments.
-
Specify
tablespace
to indicate the user's temporary tablespace. SpecifyTEMPORARY
TABLESPACE
to indicate a shared temporary tablespace. SpecifyLOCAL
TEMPORARY
TABLESPACE
to indicate a local temporary tablespace. If you are connected to a CDB, then you can specifyCDB$DEFAULT
to use the CDB-wide default temporary tablespace. -
Specify
tablespace_group_name
to indicate that the user can save temporary segments in any tablespace in the tablespace group specified bytablespace_group_name
. Local temporary tablespaces cannot be part of a tablespace group.
Restriction on User Temporary Tablespace
Any individual tablespace you assign or reassign as the user's temporary tablespace must be a temporary tablespace and must have a standard block size.
See Also:
DEFAULT ROLE Clause
Specify the roles enabled by default for the user at logon.This clause can contain only roles that have been granted directly to the user with a GRANT
statement, or roles created by the user with the CREATE
ROLE
privilege. You cannot use the DEFAULT
ROLE
clause to specify:
-
Roles not granted to the user
-
Roles granted through other roles
-
Roles managed by an external service (such as the operating system), or by the Oracle Internet Directory
-
Roles that are enabled by the
SET
ROLE
statement, such as password-authenticated roles and secure application roles
See Also:
Assigning Default Roles to Common Users in a CDB
You can modify the default role assigned to a common user both in the current container and across all containers in a CDB.
While assigning a default role to a common user across all containers, role
must be a common role that was commonly granted to the common user.
While assigning a default role to a common user in the current container, role
must be one of the following:
-
A local role that was granted to the common user in the current container
-
A common role that was granted to the common user, either commonly or locally in the current container
EXPIRE PASSWORD ROLLOVER PERIOD Clause
You can manually end the password rollover period with EXPIRE PASSWORD ROLLOVER PERIOD
.
ENABLE EDITIONS
This clause is not reversible. Specify ENABLE
EDITIONS
to allow the user to create multiple versions of editionable objects in this schema using editions. Editionable objects in non-editions-enabled schemas cannot be editioned.
Use the FOR
clause to specify one or more object types for which the user can create editionable objects. For a list of valid values for object_type
, query the V$EDITIONABLE_TYPES
dynamic performance view.
If you omit the FOR
clause, then the types that become editionable in the schema are VIEW
, SYNONYM
, PROCEDURE
, FUNCTION
, PACKAGE
, PACKAGE BODY
, TRIGGER
, TYPE
, TYPE BODY
, and LIBRARY
.
To enable edition for other object types that are not enabled by default, you must explicitly specify the object type in the FOR
clause.
Example: Enable Edition for Object Type not Enabled by Default
ALTER USER username ENABLE EDITIONS FOR SQL TRANSLATION PROFILE;
See Also:
-
For more on the semantics of the ENABLE EDITIONS clause see the corresponding section in CREATE USER
-
Oracle Database Reference for more information about the
V$EDITIONABLE_TYPES
dynamic performance view
If the schema to be editions-enabled contains any objects that are not editionable and that depend on editionable type objects in the schema, then you must specify FORCE
to enable editions for this schema. In this case, all the objects that are not editionable and that depend on the editionable type objects in the schema being editions-enabled become invalid.
[HTTP] DIGEST Clause
This clause lets you enable or disable HTTP Digest Access Authentication for the user.
-
Specify
ENABLE
to enable HTTP Digest Access Authentication. After specifing this clause, you must change the user’s password. This causes the database to generate an HTTP Digest verifier for the new password. Only then will HTTP Digest Access Authentication take effect. One way to ensure that the user’s password is changed after you issue this clause is to specify thePASSWORD
EXPIRE
clause in the same statement with theHTTP
DIGEST
ENABLE
clause, as follows:ALTER USER user PASSWORD EXPIRE HTTP DIGEST ENABLE;
This causes the database to prompt the user for a new password on his or her next attempt to log in to the database. After that, HTTP Digest Access Authentication will take effect for the user.
-
Specify
DISABLE
to disable HTTP Digest Access Authentication for the user. You do not need to change the user’s password in order for this clause to take effect. Specifying theDISABLE
clause removes the HTTP Digest from dictionary tables.ALTER USER user PASSWORD EXPIRE HTTP DIGEST DISABLE;
Refer to [HTTP] DIGEST Clause in the documentation on CREATE
USER
for more information on this clause.
CONTAINER Clause
If the current container is a PDB, then you can specify CONTAINER
=
CURRENT
to change the attributes of a local user, or the container-specific attributes (such as the default tablespace) of a common user, in the current container. If the current container is the root, then you can specify CONTAINER
=
ALL
to change the attributes of a common user across the entire CDB. If you omit this clause and the current container is a PDB, then CONTAINER
=
CURRENT
is the default. If you omit this clause and the current container is the root, then CONTAINER
=
ALL
is the default.
Restriction on Modifying Common Users in a CDB
Certain attributes of a common user must be modified for all the containers in a CDB and not for only some containers. Therefore, when you use any of the following clauses to modify a common user, ensure that you modify all of the containers by connecting to the root and specifying CONTAINER=ALL
:
-
IDENTIFIED
clause -
PASSWORD
clause -
[HTTP]
DIGEST
clause
container_data_clause
The container_data_clause
allows you the set and modify CONTAINER_DATA
attributes for a common user. Use the FOR
clause to indicate whether to set or modify the default CONTAINER_DATA
attribute or an object-specific CONTAINER_DATA
attribute. These attributes determine the set of containers (which can never exclude the root) whose data will be visible via CONTAINER_DATA
objects to the specified common user when the current session is the root.
To specify the container_data_clause
, the current session must be the root and you must specify CONTAINER
=
CURRENT
.
SET CONTAINER_DATA
Use this clause to set the default CONTAINER_DATA
attribute or an object-specific CONTAINER_DATA
attribute for a common user. When you specify this clause, you replace the existing value, if any, of the CONTAINER_DATA
attribute.
Use container_name
to specify one or more containers that will be accessible to the user.
Use ALL
to specify that all current and future containers in the CDB will be accessible to the user.
Use DEFAULT
to specify the default behavior, which is as follows:
-
For a default
CONTAINER_DATA
attribute, the current container, that is, the root, and the CDB as a whole will be accessible to the user. -
For an object-specific
CONTAINER_DATA
attribute, the database will use the user's defaultCONTAINER_DATA
attribute.
Note:
CONTAINER_DATA
attributes that are set to DEFAULT
are not visible in the DBA_CONTAINER_DATA
view.
ADD CONTAINER_DATA
Use this clause to add containers to the default CONTAINER_DATA
attribute or an object-specific CONTAINER_DATA
attribute for a common user. Use container_name
to specify one or more containers to add.
You cannot use this clause if the default CONTAINER_DATA
attribute is set to ALL
. If you use this clause when the default CONTAINER_DATA
attribute is set to DEFAULT
, then CDB$ROOT
will automatically be added to the set of containers, unless the set already contains CDB$ROOT
.
You cannot use this clause if the object-specific CONTAINER_DATA
attribute is set to ALL
or DEFAULT
.
REMOVE CONTAINER_DATA
Use this clause to remove containers from the default CONTAINER_DATA
attribute or an object-specific CONTAINER_DATA
attribute for a common user. Use container_name
to specify one or more containers to remove.
You cannot use this clause if the default CONTAINER_DATA
attribute or object-specific CONTAINER_DATA
attribute is set to ALL
or DEFAULT
.
FOR container_data_object
If you specify the FOR
clause, then you can set and modify the object-specific CONTAINER_DATA
attribute for container_data_object
for a common user. container_data_object
must be a CONTAINER_DATA
table or view. If you omit schema
, then Oracle Database assumes that container_data_object
is in your own schema.
If you omit the FOR
clause, then you can set and modify the default CONTAINER_DATA
attribute for a common user.
See Also:
Oracle Database Security Guide for more information about enabling common users to view information about PDB objects
proxy_clause
The proxy_clause
lets you control the ability of an enterprise user (a user outside the database) or a database proxy (another database user) to connect as the database user being altered.
GRANT CONNECT THROUGH
Specify GRANT
CONNECT
THROUGH
to allow the connection.
REVOKE CONNECT THROUGH
Specify REVOKE
CONNECT
THROUGH
to prohibit the connection.
ENTERPRISE USER
This clause lets you expose user
to proxy use by enterprise users. The administrator working in Oracle Internet Directory must then grant privileges for appropriate enterprise users to act on behalf of user
.
db_user_proxy
This clause lets you expose user
to proxy use by database user db_user_proxy
(the proxy).
-
The proxy will have all privileges that were directly granted to user.
-
The proxy will have all roles associated with user, unless you specify the
WITH
clauses ofdb_user_proxy_clauses
to limit the proxy to some or none of the roles of user. For each role associated with the proxy, if the role is enabled by default foruser
at login, then that role will also be enabled by default for the proxy at login.
db_user_proxy_clauses
You can enable password-protected roles in a proxy session. Both secure application role and password-protected roles provide a secure method for enabling a role in a session. Oracle recommends using secure password roles instead of password protected roles in instances where the password has to be maintained and transmitted over insecure channels, or if more than one person needs to know the password. Password-protected roles in a proxy session are suitable for situations where automation is used to set the role.
Proxy users can access password-protected roles. Specify the WITH
clauses to limit the proxy to some or none of the roles associated with user
, and the AUTHENTICATION
REQUIRED
clause to specify whether authentication is required.
WITH ROLE
WITH
ROLE
role_name
permits the proxy to connect as the specified user and to activate only the roles that are specified by role_name
. This clause can contain only roles that are associated with user
. Password protected roles and secure application roles also need to be listed in the WITH
ROLE
clause if the Proxy user will need to use these secure roles. These secure roles will be included with the WITH ROLE ALL
clause (the default if WITH ROLE
is not specified). If WITH ROLE
doesn't specify the secure roles, then those cannot be enabled even with right password.
WITH ROLE ALL EXCEPT
WITH
ROLE
ALL
EXCEPT
role_name
permits the proxy to connect as the specified user and to activate all roles associated with that user except those specified for role_name
. This clause can contain only roles that are associated with user
.
WITH NO ROLES
WITH
NO
ROLES
permits the proxy to connect as the specified user, but prohibits the proxy from activating any of that user's roles after connecting, even the secure roles like password protected roles and secure application roles.
Oracle Database does not expect the proxy to authenticate the user unless you specify the AUTHENTICATION
REQUIRED
clause. This clause ensures that authentication credentials for the user must be presented when the user is authenticated through the specified proxy. The credential is a password.
The AUTHENTICATED
USING
clauses, which appeared in the syntax of earlier releases, have been deprecated and are no longer needed. If you specify the AUTHENTICATED
USING
PASSWORD
clause, then Oracle Database converts it to the AUTHENTICATION
REQUIRED
clause. Specifying the AUTHENTICATED
USING
CERTIFICATE
clause or the AUTHENTICATED
USING
DISTINGUISHED
NAME
clause is equivalent to omitting the AUTHENTICATION
REQUIRED
clause.
See Also:
-
Oracle Security Overview for an overview of database security and for information on middle-tier systems and proxy authentication
-
Oracle Database Security Guide for more information on proxies and their use of the database and "Proxy Users: Examples"
Examples
Changing User Identification: Example
The following statement changes the password of the user sidney
(created in "Creating a Database User: Example") second_2nd_pwd
and default tablespace to the tablespace example
:
ALTER USER sidney IDENTIFIED BY second_2nd_pwd DEFAULT TABLESPACE example;
The following statement assigns the new_profile
profile (created in "Creating a Profile: Example") to the sample user sh
:
ALTER USER sh PROFILE new_profile;
In subsequent sessions, sh
is restricted by limits in the new_profile
profile.
The following statement makes all roles granted directly to sh
default roles, except the dw_manager
role:
ALTER USER sh DEFAULT ROLE ALL EXCEPT dw_manager;
At the beginning of sh
's next session, Oracle Database enables all roles granted directly to sh
except the dw_manager
role.
Changing User Authentication: Examples
The following statement changes the authentication mechanism of user app_user1
(created in "Creating a Database User: Example")
:
ALTER USER app_user1 IDENTIFIED GLOBALLY AS 'CN=tom,O=oracle,C=US';
The following statement causes user sidney
's password to expire:
ALTER USER sidney PASSWORD EXPIRE;
If you cause a database user's password to expire with PASSWORD
EXPIRE
, then the user (or the DBA) must change the password before attempting to log in to the database following the expiration. However, tools such as SQL*Plus allow the user to change the password on the first attempted login following the expiration.
Assigning a Tablespace Group: Example
The following statement assigns tbs_grp_01
(created in "Adding a Temporary Tablespace to a Tablespace Group: Example") as the tablespace group for user sh
:
ALTER USER sh TEMPORARY TABLESPACE tbs_grp_01;
Proxy Users: Examples
The following statement alters the user app_user1
. The example permits the app_user1
to connect through the proxy user sh
. The example also allows app_user1
to enable its warehouse_user
role (created in "Creating a Role: Example") when connected through the proxy sh
:
ALTER USER app_user1 GRANT CONNECT THROUGH sh WITH ROLE warehouse_user;
To show basic syntax, this example uses the sample database Sales History user (sh
) as the proxy. Normally a proxy user would be an application server or middle-tier entity. For information on creating the interface between an application user and a database by way of an application server, refer to Oracle Call Interface Programmer's Guide.
See Also:
-
"Creating External Database Users: Examples" to see how to create the
app_user
user -
"Creating a Role: Example" to see how to create the
dw_user
role
The following statement takes away the right of user app_user1
to connect through the proxy user sh
:
ALTER USER app_user1 REVOKE CONNECT THROUGH sh;
The following hypothetical examples shows another method of proxy authentication:
ALTER USER sully GRANT CONNECT THROUGH OAS1 AUTHENTICATED USING PASSWORD;
The following example exposes the user app_user1
to proxy use by enterprise users. The enterprise users cannot act on behalf of app_user1
until the Oracle Internet Directory administrator has granted them appropriate privileges:
ALTER USER app_user1 GRANT CONNECT THROUGH ENTERPRISE USERS;