The Oracle DataServer does not require its own authentication. Users connecting through Oracle cleint libraries from a DataServer application need to provide only their foreign data source credentials to make a conneciton..

Secure connection to a foreign databse can be made in three different ways:

The User Id and Password that is used to connect to the foreign database from OpenEdge can be encrypted by the user. The following example demonstrates a self-encryption method available to OpenEdge applications that uses an agreed upon encryption key. The user encrypts the message and the DataServer detects the encryption by virtue of an encryption key prefix that informs the DataServer to decrypt just prior to connection with the foreign data source. The ABL syntax to encrypt a connection string is shown in the following example:

User Id and Password are encrypted internally on behalf of the application so that clear test is never seen from the application, nor is it transmitted over a connection in clear text. This security policy is enabled by default.

Users are still able to store clear text credentials in the dictionary if they chose to do so. However, if they self-encrypt credentials placed in the dictionary, as described in the above example, the credentials will remain encrypted while in schema holder storage and will be automatically decrypted by the DataServer when authentication is needed for the foreign data source connection.