How Oracle DBSAT Helps You Meet CIS Benchmarks with Confidence

by | Jun 12, 2025 | Blog, Database, Oracle, Security

How Oracle DBSAT Helps You Meet CIS Benchmarks with Confidence

As a database professional with over 20 years of managing Oracle environments, I’ve seen firsthand how database security has evolved from a checkbox task to a mission-critical discipline. With threats becoming increasingly sophisticated and auditors relying more heavily on industry standards, such as the CIS (Center for Internet Security) benchmarks, securing your Oracle database is no longer just a best practice—it is a necessity.

That’s where the Oracle Database Security Assessment Tool (DBSAT) comes in. DBSAT is one of the most powerful yet underutilized tools in the Oracle ecosystem, especially when it comes to aligning your environment with the CIS Oracle Database Benchmarks.

Why DBSAT Matters

The CIS Benchmarks provide a comprehensive set of recommendations for hardening your Oracle database. They cover everything from access controls and privilege management to auditing and encryption. However, manually checking all these configurations can be time-consuming and prone to errors.

DBSAT automates this process. It systematically scans your database configuration, user roles, privileges, and system settings, generating a report that directly maps to many of the CIS controls. As someone who has undergone numerous compliance audits throughout my career, I can attest that this is a significant time-saver.

Key Areas Where DBSAT Aligns with CIS

Let’s break down some specific examples of how DBSAT helps you address CIS recommendations:

1. User and Role Management

CIS emphasizes the principle of least privilege. DBSAT provides detailed information on:

  • Users with excessive privileges (e.g., unnecessary DBA roles).
  • Accounts with default or easily guessable usernames.
  • Stale or inactive accounts that should be locked or removed.

In one instance, DBSAT helped us identify an old schema used during UAT testing that still had elevated privileges in production. That’s a potential attack vector we were able to remediate immediately.

2. Password Policies

Weak password configurations are a classic entry point for attackers. DBSAT reports:

  • Whether password verification functions are enforced.
  • If password reuse limits, expiration, and lockout policies are in place.
  • Accounts using default Oracle passwords, which is a direct CIS red flag.

After running DBSAT on a client’s system, we found that nearly a dozen service accounts lacked password expiration policies. That was corrected within a change window, improving compliance and security in one move.

3. Auditing and Logging

CIS requires comprehensive auditing to detect suspicious activity. DBSAT assesses:

  • Whether standard Oracle auditing is enabled.
  • If critical actions like CREATE USER, DROP USER, and GRANT are being logged.
  • Whether audit trails are being protected from tampering.

In my experience, many clients enable auditing but fail to verify that logs are actually being collected or reviewed. DBSAT gives you clarity on this.

4. Database Configuration

DBSAT scans for risky settings like:

  • UTL_FILE_DIR set to * (a major security concern).
  • REMOTE_OS_AUTHENT being enabled (which violates CIS).
  • Presence of dangerous public grants.

For example, a company I worked with was unknowingly exposing internal files because of a wide-open UTL_FILE_DIR setting. DBSAT flagged it immediately, helping them close that gap before it became an issue during their external audit.

DBSAT Reporting: A Goldmine for Compliance

DBSAT generates multiple output formats (TEXT, HTML, JSON), which makes it easy to:

  • Share findings with auditors and InfoSec.
  • Track remediation progress over time.
  • Integrate with existing reporting tools.

Even better, the DBSAT Reporter Tool makes interpretation easier by grouping risks by severity and category, helping you prioritize.

Best Practices for Using DBSAT

  • Run it regularly, not just before audits.
  • Integrate it into your change management lifecycle—especially before and after major patching or upgrades.
  • Compare outputs across environments (DEV/QA/PROD) to ensure consistent hardening.

Final Thoughts

DBSAT is more than a diagnostic tool—it’s a compliance accelerator and a security enabler. If you’re aiming to align with the CIS Oracle Database Benchmark, running DBSAT should be one of your first steps. It’s fast, lightweight, and provides actionable insights that save you hours of manual review.

In today’s landscape, where database breaches can lead to serious financial and reputational damage, tools like DBSAT aren’t optional—they’re essential.

If you haven’t already, make DBSAT part of your standard database administration (DBA) toolkit. Your auditors and your internal security team will thank you.

Contact an XTIVIA Oracle DBA if you’d like a sample DBSAT report walkthrough or to schedule an Oracle database security scan using the Oracle DBSAT tool. Learn more here.