A flaw in Oracle's flagship database software
has been come into light which can cause adverse effects for Oracle database
customers. It is not only showing a compromise with the security but also with
the stability of Oracle Database systems. The flaws which are found in this
Oracle's flagship database software can cause some problems which takes lots of
time to get corrected. A Source says, "This is a very real problem and we have
spended lots of time and money to do research in this field and efforts are
still on the way. "The company has requested as well not to bring this story in
light until it got time to develop and test patches which addressed the errors.
It is to be noticed that security aspect of any bug or flaw can bring malicious
attack to any unpatched database customer undoubtedly.
Here we would like to discuss about SCN, System
Change Number. It is a special number that increments sequentially with every
database. It is used to identify Database transactions. It is to be noted that
these SCN values are used in many places. Another thing which is good to know
that Oracle has designed its database such that there is a maximum SCN value at
any given instant of time and this maximum value is not a fixed value. It is a
function of the current system time and grows with it only. It is very essential
for Oracle database operation.