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Managing Oracle User Access Risks in a Single Platform

By Pat Wadland posted 03-04-2025 10:26 AM

  

Managing user access risks becomes critical as organizations migrate from Oracle EBS to Oracle Cloud applications. While this migration brings improved scalability and efficiency, it also introduces new security challenges. Managing user access risks is a critical part of this process—without proper controls, businesses expose themselves to security breaches, audit failures, and operational inefficiencies.

However, with the right strategies and tools, it is possible to streamline Oracle user access risk management, to fortify your business application security.

Understanding Oracle Access Risks

Oracle access risks stem from a variety of sources, including:

  • Excessive & Unintended Access – Users having more privileges than necessary, leading to potential security breaches.
  • Segregation of Duties (SoD) Conflicts – Overlapping roles that create fraud risks.
  • System Account Misuse – Unauthorized use of privileged accounts without proper oversight.
  • Weak Access Governance – Lack of regular access reviews and monitoring.

Challenges in Migrating from Oracle EBS to Cloud

Transitioning to Oracle Cloud involves a shift in security models. Unlike EBS, which relies on User-Responsibility mappings, Oracle Cloud follows a User-Job Role-Privilege model. This makes access mapping complex, as there is no direct one-to-one mapping between EBS responsibilities and Cloud privileges.

Common migration challenges include:

  • Difficulty in Generating User Role Reports – Unlike EBS, Oracle Cloud does not provide a simple report of user-job role assignments.
  • Control Configuration Differences – Security settings like approval workflows are located in different areas between EBS and Cloud.
  • Cross-Application SoD Conflicts – Ensuring that access risks are monitored across multiple enterprise applications (e.g. Oracle EBS, Oracle Cloud, Salesforce, Workday etc).

Best Practices for Oracle User Access Risk Management

To ensure a smooth and secure Oracle migration, organizations should implement these best practices:

  1. Automate Access Reviews – Conducting regular user access reviews is essential to ensure that permissions are granted based on job roles. Use tools like Fastpath to streamline User Access Reviews (UARs).
  2. Monitor Privileged Access – Implement continuous monitoring to track high-risk user activities. Privileged accounts, such as system administrators and implementation consultants, require additional oversight due to their high-risk access
  3. Leverage Role Navigation Simulators – Use Oracle’s built-in tools to simulate access privileges and minimize false positives.
  4. Establish Clear Mitigation Strategies – Develop control libraries to handle unavoidable access conflicts.
  5. Align Segregation of Duties Policies - Many organizations use multiple enterprise applications (e.g., Oracle Cloud, SAP, NetSuite). To avoid conflicts, it’s essential to ensure Segregation of Duties (SoD) compliance across all systems.
  6. Unify Risk Management Across Applications – Ensure that access risks are analyzed across both Oracle EBS and Cloud applications to prevent gaps during migration.

A Centralized Approach to Oracle User Access Risk Management

By leveraging an integrated platform like Fastpath, businesses can manage access risks for both Oracle EBS and Cloud applications in a single solution. This eliminates the need for multiple GRC platforms and enables proactive risk mitigation.

Migrating to Oracle Cloud is a significant step, but with the right access control framework, businesses can ensure a secure and compliant transition.

Watch our webinar as we take a deeper dive into mastering Oracle user access risks.

Alternatively, if you want to learn more, visit the Delinea website.

Comments

03-07-2025 01:07 PM

Pat,

I would say... one reason to implement a solution like FastPath before go live would be to get the User Re-Certification process.  All processes needed for SOX compliance should be tested prior to go live including those that support audit requirements.

Having said that... last I knew, the FastPath UAR solution for ERP/HCM Cloud was not functioning properly for organizations that have more than one Business Unit.  As you know Pat, one of our joint clients hasn't used your UAR process ever even though they have licensed it because your UARs aren't taking into account data access.

For those that are considering Oracle's Risk Management Cloud, that deficiency is relevant as well.

There is only one software solution that we know has solved this issue.

Jeff

03-07-2025 11:16 AM

Thank you, Jeff! I fully agree with your excellent points, especially about conducting a pre go-live security assessment, including SoD, around UAT.
As I'm sure you and Donna can attest, remediating roles and user-role assignment access issues pre go-live is significantly easier than after going live from both a Change Management and ITGC perspective.
From an SoD perspective, it's critical to evaluate an organization's Oracle Cloud role design (job roles, duty roles, abstract, etc.), as well as user-role assignments, down to the lowest privilege level rather than just at the role or 'entitlement' level. Delinea's Fastpath Access Control solution can certainly assist with this.

03-06-2025 09:26 AM

Great insight Pat.  We help organizations designing and implementing fully customized roles as part of an ERP Cloud implementation. We find that most System Integrators don’t know how to build custom roles based on the principle of least privilege and considering SoD conflicts that need to be addressed.  

Organizations need to budget for an assessment prior to go live around the time of UAT and plan for implementing software three to six months after go live once roles are remediated and job roles are mapped to positions. 

Contact me at jhare@erpra.net if you would like to understand more about our crawl - walk - run approach   

Jeff Hare CPA CIA CISA