About Discoverer and security

13 Maintaining Security with Oracle BI Discoverer 13-1 13 Maintaining Security with Oracle BI Discoverer This chapter only applies to Discoverer Plus and Discoverer Viewer. For more information about configuring Discoverer Plus OLAP, see Chapter 5, Configuring Discoverer Plus OLAP . This chapter describes the different security mechanisms that Discoverer uses to protect sensitive resources, and contains the following topics: ■ Section 13.1, About Discoverer and security ■ Section 13.2, About Discoverer and the database security model ■ Section 13.3, About Discoverer and the Discoverer EUL security model ■ Section 13.4, About Discoverer and the Oracle Applications security model ■ Section 13.5, About Discoverer and the Oracle Fusion Middleware Security model ■ Section 13.6, Using Discoverer with Oracle Fusion Middleware Security ■ Section 13.7, Configuring End-to-End Secure Sockets Layer for Discoverer ■ Section 13.8, Using Discoverer with Oracle Identity Management Infrastructure ■ Section 13.9, Discoverer support for Single Sign-On details propagation ■ Section 13.10, Frequently asked questions about security

13.1 About Discoverer and security

Discoverer uses and must therefore protect different sensitive resources, including: ■ Data for example, users must only see information they are allowed to see ■ Metadata for example, users must not be able to edit workbooks to which they do not have access ■ Discoverer connections for example, database login details must not be transmitted or persisted without being securely encrypted ■ System resources for example, CPU, memory ■ Network resources or more precisely, the protection of data as it is transmitted across a network The table below shows the sensitive resources used and protected by the different Discoverer components: 13-2 Oracle Fusion Middleware Configuration Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Discoverer Discoverer uses several security mechanisms to prevent unauthorized access to the above resources. These security mechanisms are provided by the following security models: ■ Database security model ■ Discoverer EUL security model ■ Oracle Applications security model ■ Oracle Fusion Middleware Security model The diagram below shows the multiple security mechanisms employed by Discoverer, all of which ultimately protect data and system resources from unauthorized access: The security mechanisms that Discoverer employs depend on the category of Discoverer user as defined by the Discoverer product they are using, as follows: ■ Discoverer Plus, Discoverer Viewer, and Discoverer Portlet Provider users that is, Discoverer end users ■ Oracle BI Discoverer Administrator users that is, Discoverer managers ■ users administering Discoverer using Fusion Middleware Control that is, Discoverer middle-tier administrators The table below shows the security models are used by Discoverer components: Sensitive resource Used and protected by Discoverer Plus Used and protected by Discoverer Viewer Used and protected by Discoverer Portlet Provider Used and protected by Discoverer Administrator Used and protected by Discoverer pages in Fusion Middleware Control Data Yes Yes Yes Yes Not used Metadata Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Discoverer connections Yes Yes Yes Not used Yes System resources Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Network resources Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Maintaining Security with Oracle BI Discoverer 13-3

13.2 About Discoverer and the database security model