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OS Authentication Fails With ORA-12638 On Non-English Windows System (Doc ID 1280996.1)

Last updated on AUGUST 17, 2022

Applies to:

Oracle Database - Enterprise Edition - Version 11.2.0.1 and later
Oracle Database Cloud Schema Service - Version N/A and later
Gen 1 Exadata Cloud at Customer (Oracle Exadata Database Cloud Machine) - Version N/A and later
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure - Database Service - Version N/A and later
Oracle Database Cloud Exadata Service - Version N/A and later
Generic Windows
 

Symptoms

- You are running Oracle on a Windows system with an non-English language (typically French, but may happen with other languages)
- sqlnet.ora parameter sqlnet.authentication_services = (NTS) for Active Directory authentication.
- The Oracle services run with the local system account (default)
- The Domain user is properly added to the local ORA_DBA group.
- When you try to connect with a Domain user it fails with the error ORA-12638

Advanced Symptoms:

When you trace the connection using sqlnet tracing at level 16, the following two additional symptoms can be observed in the client side trace file:

- There's a special character in the packet that contains the username received by the client:


[11-JANV.-2011 14:43:08:370] nsprecv: 15 00 00 47 52 4F 55 50 |...GROUP|
[11-JANV.-2011 14:43:08:370] nsprecv: 45 42 41 54 54 45 55 52 |<USERNAME>|
[11-JANV.-2011 14:43:08:370] nsprecv: 5C 53 79 73 74 E8 6D 65 |\Syst.me|


- Further down in the trace file the following errors are recorded also:


[11-JANV.-2011 14:43:08:370] naun5authent: Authentication type is 0
[11-JANV.-2011 14:43:08:370] naun5authent: SSPI: 0x80090303 error in InitializeSecurityContext
[11-JANV.-2011 14:43:08:370] naun5authent: exit
[11-JANV.-2011 14:43:08:370] naunauthent: exit
[11-JANV.-2011 14:43:08:370] nau_ccn: get credentials function failed
[11-JANV.-2011 14:43:08:370] nau_ccn: failed with error 12638



Changes

So far this is observed with Oracle 11.2 on Windows systems configured with the French language, the Oracle service is running with the local system account.

Cause

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In this Document
Symptoms
Changes
Cause
Solution
References


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