Using Email (utl_smtp) in Oracle 11g (results in ORA-24247) – Network Access Control List (ACL).

Using UTL_SMTP to send email from your oracle database has changed in Oracle 11g. Or – to be more precise – accessing the remote network has changed.

Initializing a remote connection using UTL_SMTP will typically result in error below if you did not configure your database network access lists (ACL) for the user involved.

-1. the error
===

SQL> DECLARE
  2    v_mailsever_host VARCHAR2(30) := 'mail.<domain>.nl';
  3    v_mailsever_port PLS_INTEGER  := 25;
  4    l_mail_conn  UTL_SMTP.CONNECTION;
  5  BEGIN
  6    l_mail_conn := UTL_SMTP.OPEN_CONNECTION( v_mailsever_host, v_mailsever_port);
  7  END;
  8  /
DECLARE
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-24247: network access denied by access control list (ACL)
ORA-06512: at "SYS.UTL_TCP", line 17
ORA-06512: at "SYS.UTL_TCP", line 267
ORA-06512: at "SYS.UTL_SMTP", line 161
ORA-06512: at "SYS.UTL_SMTP", line 197
ORA-06512: at line 6

SQL> sho user
USER is "SCOTT"
SQL>

“wat is dit nu weer !!!”

Allright – in Oracle 11g – you have to configure (grant) each and every network access point using so called Access Control Lists (ACL’s). Obviously user SCOTT is not configured to access the network point it’s trying to access here.

The docs are here in ‘Managing Fine-Grained Access to External Network Services’ – //docs.oracle.com/cd/B28359_01/network.111/b28531/authorization.htm#DBSEG40012

-0. check for current existing ACL’s
Let’s check out all currently presentAccess Control Lists in the database;
===

SQL> SELECT host, lower_port, upper_port, acl FROM dba_network_acls ;

no rows selected

SQL>

Allright – none present – let’s create a new network access list using DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN

— privilege – Use ‘connect’ for UTL_TCP, UTL_SMTP, UTL_MAIL and UTL_HTTP access. Use ‘resolve’ for UTL_INADDR name/IP resolution. The text for the privilege is case sensitive. A list of all available network access privileges is in the DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.ADD_PRIVILEGE reference.

-1. create new list
===
Here we create a new ACL list ‘acl_test_for_scott.xml’ with default initial grantee user SCOTT.

BEGIN
  DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.create_acl (
    acl          => 'acl_test_for_scott.xml', 
    description  => 'A test of the ACL functionality',
    principal    => 'SCOTT',
    is_grant     => TRUE, 
    privilege    => 'connect',
    start_date   => SYSTIMESTAMP,
    end_date     => NULL);

  COMMIT;
END;
/

Now check if we can find this new ACL in the data dictionary:

SQL> SELECT host, lower_port, upper_port, acl FROM dba_network_acls;

no rows selected

?? Why does my newly created ACL ‘acl_test_for_scott.xml’ fail to show up?

OK… explained here – https://forums.oracle.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=2208522#jive-message-10494920 – new ACL’s will only be visible once a at least one access points has been assigned to the ACL (imho this is a bug).

OK next is adding an access point to our ACL.

-2. add access point to the new ACL
Add a network access point to the ACL list;

BEGIN
  DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.assign_acl (
    acl => 'acl_test_for_scott.xml',
    host => 'mail.<domain>.nl', 
    lower_port => 80,
    upper_port => NULL); 
END;
/

No sparky, mailservers usually listen on port 25…
OK, add another access point.

BEGIN
  DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.assign_acl (
    acl => 'acl_test_for_scott.xml',
    host => 'mail.********.nl', 
    lower_port => 25,
    upper_port => NULL); 
  COMMIT;

-4. add another database user to the ACL list

BEGIN
  DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.ADD_PRIVILEGE(
    acl => 'acl_test_for_scott.xml', 
    principal => 'PANNENKOEK', 
    is_grant => TRUE, 
    privilege => 'connect');
END;
/

-5. retrieve our new configuration from the dictionary

— query all access points (per ACL)

SQL> l
  1* select * from dba_network_acls
SQL> /

HOST       LOWER_PORT UPPER_PORT ACL
---------- ---------- ---------- ------------------------------
mail.**.nl         80         80 /sys/acls/acl_test_for_scott.xml
mail.**.nl         25         25 /sys/acls/acl_test_for_scott.xml

SQL>

— query ACL grants

SQL> l
  1  SELECT acl,
  2         principal,
  3         privilege,
  4         is_grant,
  5         TO_CHAR(start_date, 'DD-MON-YYYY') AS start_date,
  6         TO_CHAR(end_date, 'DD-MON-YYYY') AS end_date
  7* FROM   dba_network_acl_privileges
SQL> /

ACL                                 PRINCIPAL  PRIVILE IS_GR START_DATE  END_DATE
------------------------------      ---------- ------- ----- ----------- -----------
/sys/acls/acl_test_for_scott.xml    SCOTT      connect true  30-JAN-2013
/sys/acls/acl_test_for_scott.xml    PANNENKOEK connect true  30-JAN-2013

Now test again if user SCOTT can create a TCP connection – succeeds;

SQL> DECLARE
  2    v_mailsever_host VARCHAR2(30) := 'mail.<domain>.nl';
  3    v_mailsever_port PLS_INTEGER  := 25;
  4    l_mail_conn  UTL_SMTP.CONNECTION;
  5  BEGIN
  6    l_mail_conn := UTL_SMTP.OPEN_CONNECTION( v_mailsever_host, v_mailsever_port);
  7  END;
  8  /

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

I used the oracle-base.com send_mail procedure to quickly test: //www.oracle-base.com/articles/misc/email-from-oracle-plsql.php

• DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN ( PL/SQL Packages and Types Reference)
• Oracle Base – Fine-Grained Access to Network Services in Oracle Database 11g Release 1