NOAUDIT (Unified Auditing)

This section describes the NOAUDIT statement for unified auditing. This type of auditing is new beginning with Oracle Database 12c and provides a full set of enhanced auditing features. Refer to Oracle Database Security Guide for more information on unified auditing.

Purpose

Use the NOAUDIT statement to:

  • Disable a unified audit policy for all users or for specified users

  • Exclude the values of context attributes from audit records

Operations performed with this statement take effect in subsequent user sessions, not in the current session.

Prerequisites

You must have the AUDIT SYSTEM system privilege or the AUDIT_ADMIN role.

If you are connected to a multitenant container database (CDB), then to disable a common unified audit policy, the current container must be the root and you must have the commonly granted AUDIT SYSTEM privilege or the AUDIT_ADMIN common role. To disable a local unified audit policy, the current container must be the container in which the audit policy was created and you must have the commonly granted AUDIT SYSTEM privilege or the AUDIT_ADMIN common role, or you must have the locally granted AUDIT SYSTEM privilege or the AUDIT_ADMIN local role in the container.

To specify the NOAUDIT CONTEXT ... statement when connected to a CDB, you must have the commonly granted AUDIT SYSTEM privilege or the AUDIT_ADMIN common role, or you must have the locally granted AUDIT SYSTEM privilege or the AUDIT_ADMIN local role in the current session's container.

Semantics

policy

Specify the name of the unified audit policy you want to disable.

You can find descriptions of all unified audit policies by querying the AUDIT_UNIFIED_POLICIES view and descriptions of all enabled unified audit policies by querying the AUDIT_UNIFIED_ENABLED_POLICIES view.

See Also:

Oracle Database Reference for more information on the AUDIT_UNIFIED_POLICIES and AUDIT_UNIFIED_ENABLED_POLICIES views

CONTEXT Clause

Specify the CONTEXT clause to exclude the values of context attributes in audit records.

  • For namespace, specify the context namespace.

  • For attribute, specify one or more context attributes whose values you want to exclude from audit records.

If you specify the CONTEXT clause when the current container is the root of a CDB, then the values of context attributes will be included in audit records only for events executed in the root. If you specify the optional BY clause, then user must be a common user.

If you specify the CONTEXT clause when the current container is a pluggable database (PDB), then the values of context attributes will be included in audit records only for events executed in that PDB. If you specify the optional BY clause, then user must be a common user or a local user in that PDB.

You can find the application context attributes that are configured to be captured in the audit trail by querying the AUDIT_UNIFIED_CONTEXTS view.

See Also:

Oracle Database Reference for more information on the AUDIT_UNIFIED_CONTEXTS view

BY

You can specify the BY clause for the NOAUDIT POLICY and NOAUDIT CONTEXT statements.

NOAUDIT POLICY ... BY The behavior of the BY clause depends on whether policy is enabled for all users or specific users.

  • If policy is enabled for all users, then you can disable policy for all users by omitting the BY clause. If you specify the BY clause, then the NOAUDIT POLICY statement will have no effect.

  • If policy is enabled for one or more users (using the AUDIT POLICY ... BY ... statement), then you can:

    • Disable policy for one or more of those users by specifying the BY clause followed by the users for whom you want policy disabled

    • Completely disable policy by specifying the BY clause followed by all of the users for whom policy is enabled

    If you do not specify the BY clause, then the NOAUDIT POLICY statement will have no effect.

  • If policy is enabled for all users except specific users (using the AUDIT POLICY ... EXCEPT ... statement), then you can disable policy for all users by omitting the BY clause. If you specify the BY clause, then the NOAUDIT POLICY statement will have no effect.

If policy is a common unified audit policy, then user must be a common user. If policy is a local unified audit policy, then user must be a common user or a local user in the container to which you are connected.

NOAUDIT CONTEXT ... BY  The behavior of the BY clause depends on whether attribute is configured to be included in audit records for all users or specific users.

  • If attribute is configured to be included in audit records for all users, then you can exclude attribute from audit records for all users by omitting the BY clause. If you specify the BY clause, then the NOAUDIT CONTEXT statement will have no effect.

  • If attribute is configured to be included in audit records for specific users, then you can exclude attribute for one or more of those users by specifying the BY clause followed by the users for whom you want attribute excluded. If you do not specify the BY clause, then the NOAUDIT CONTEXT statement will have no effect.

Examples

The following examples disable unified audit policies that were created in the CREATE AUDIT POLICY "Examples" and enabled in the AUDIT "Examples".

Disabling a Unified Audit Policy for All Users: Example Assume that unified audit policy table_pol is enabled for all users. The following statement disables table_pol for all users:

NOAUDIT POLICY table_pol;

The following statement returns no rows, which verifies that table_pol is disabled for all users:

SELECT *
  FROM audit_unified_enabled_policies
  WHERE policy_name = 'TABLE_POL';

Disabling a Unified Audit Policy for Specific Users: Example Assume that unified audit policy dml_pol is enabled for users hr and sh, as shown by the following query:

SELECT policy_name, enabled_opt, user_name
  FROM audit_unified_enabled_policies
  WHERE policy_name = 'DML_POL'
  ORDER BY user_name;
 
POLICY_NAME  ENABLED_OPT  USER_NAME
-----------  -----------  ---------
DML_POL      BY           HR
DML_POL      BY           SH

The following statement disables dml_pol for user hr:

NOAUDIT POLICY dml_pol BY hr;

The following statement verifies that dml_pol is now enabled for only user sh:

SELECT policy_name, enabled_opt, user_name
  FROM audit_unified_enabled_policies
  WHERE policy_name = 'DML_POL';
 
POLICY_NAME  ENABLED_OPT  USER_NAME
-----------  -----------  ---------
DML_POL      BY           SH

The following statement disables dml_pol for user sh:

NOAUDIT POLICY dml_pol BY sh;

The following statement returns no rows, which verifies that dml_pol is disabled for all users:

SELECT *
  FROM audit_unified_enabled_policies
  WHERE policy_name = 'DML_POL';

Excluding Values of Context Attributes in Audit Records: Example The following statement instructs the database to exclude the values of namespace USERENV attributes CURRENT_USER and DB_NAME from all audit records for user hr:

NOAUDIT CONTEXT NAMESPACE userenv
  ATTRIBUTES current_user, db_name
  BY hr;