change Oracle user account status from EXPIRE(GRACE) to OPEN

Question

After getting the message Your password will be expired with in 7 days, I changed the password expire days of the default profile to UNLIMITED. But the account status of some users are still remaining in EXPIRE(GRACE).

Any way to change the Oracle user account status from EXPIRE(GRACE) to OPEN without resetting the password?

Answer 1

No, you cannot directly change an account status from EXPIRE(GRACE) to OPEN without resetting the password.

The documentation says:

If you cause a database user's password to expire with PASSWORD EXPIRE, then the user (or the DBA) must change the password before attempting to log into the database following the expiration.

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However, you can indirectly change the status to OPEN by resetting the user's password hash to the existing value. Unfortunately, setting the password hash to itself has the following complications, and almost every other solution misses at least one of these issues:

1. Different versions of Oracle use different types of hashes.
2. The user's profile may prevent re-using passwords.
3. Profile limits can be changed, but we have to change the values back at the end.
4. Profile values are not trivial because if the value is DEFAULT, that is a pointer to the DEFAULT profile's value. We may need to recursively check the profile.

The following, ridiculously large PL/SQL block, should handle all of those cases. It should reset any account to OPEN, with the same password hash, regardless of Oracle version or profile settings. And the profile will be changed back to the original limits.

--Purpose: Change a user from EXPIRED to OPEN by setting a user's password to the same value. --This PL/SQL block requires elevated privileges and should be run as SYS. --This task is difficult because we need to temporarily change profiles to avoid --  errors like "ORA-28007: the password cannot be reused". -- --How to use: Run as SYS in SQL*Plus and enter the username when prompted. --  If using another IDE, manually replace the variable two lines below. declare     v_username varchar2(128) := trim(upper('&USERNAME'));     --Do not change anything below this line.     v_profile                 varchar2(128);     v_old_password_reuse_time varchar2(128);     v_uses_default_for_time   varchar2(3);     v_old_password_reuse_max  varchar2(128);     v_uses_default_for_max    varchar2(3);     v_alter_user_sql          varchar2(4000); begin     --Get user's profile information.     --(This is tricky because there could be an indirection to the DEFAULT profile.     select         profile,         case when user_password_reuse_time = 'DEFAULT' then default_password_reuse_time else user_password_reuse_time end password_reuse_time,         case when user_password_reuse_time = 'DEFAULT' then 'Yes' else 'No' end uses_default_for_time,         case when user_password_reuse_max  = 'DEFAULT' then default_password_reuse_max  else user_password_reuse_max  end password_reuse_max,         case when user_password_reuse_max  = 'DEFAULT' then 'Yes' else 'No' end uses_default_for_max     into v_profile, v_old_password_reuse_time, v_uses_default_for_time, v_old_password_reuse_max, v_uses_default_for_max     from     (         --User's profile information.         select             dba_profiles.profile,             max(case when resource_name = 'PASSWORD_REUSE_TIME' then limit else null end) user_password_reuse_time,             max(case when resource_name = 'PASSWORD_REUSE_MAX' then limit else null end) user_password_reuse_max         from dba_profiles         join dba_users             on dba_profiles.profile = dba_users.profile         where username = v_username         group by dba_profiles.profile     ) users_profile     cross join     (         --Default profile information.         select             max(case when resource_name = 'PASSWORD_REUSE_TIME' then limit else null end) default_password_reuse_time,             max(case when resource_name = 'PASSWORD_REUSE_MAX' then limit else null end) default_password_reuse_max         from dba_profiles         where profile = 'DEFAULT'     ) default_profile;      --Get user's password information.     select         'alter user '||name||' identified by values '''||         spare4 || case when password is not null then ';' else null end || password ||         ''''     into v_alter_user_sql     from sys.user$     where name = v_username;      --Change profile limits, if necessary.     if v_old_password_reuse_time <> 'UNLIMITED' then         execute immediate 'alter profile '||v_profile||' limit password_reuse_time unlimited';     end if;      if v_old_password_reuse_max <> 'UNLIMITED' then         execute immediate 'alter profile '||v_profile||' limit password_reuse_max unlimited';     end if;      --Change the user's password.     execute immediate v_alter_user_sql;      --Change the profile limits back, if necessary.     if v_old_password_reuse_time <> 'UNLIMITED' then         if v_uses_default_for_time = 'Yes' then             execute immediate 'alter profile '||v_profile||' limit password_reuse_time default';         else             execute immediate 'alter profile '||v_profile||' limit password_reuse_time '||v_old_password_reuse_time;         end if;     end if;      if v_old_password_reuse_max <> 'UNLIMITED' then         if v_uses_default_for_max = 'Yes' then             execute immediate 'alter profile '||v_profile||' limit password_reuse_max default';         else             execute immediate 'alter profile '||v_profile||' limit password_reuse_max '||v_old_password_reuse_max;         end if;     end if; end; / 

Answer 2

Compilation from jonearles' answer, http://kishantha.blogspot.com/2010/03/oracle-enterprise-manager-console.html and http://blog.flimatech.com/2011/07/17/changing-oracle-password-in-11g-using-alter-user-identified-by-values/ (Oracle 11g):

To stop this happening in the future do the following.

• Login to sqlplus as sysdba -> sqlplus "/as sysdba"
• Execute ->ALTER PROFILE DEFAULT LIMIT FAILED_LOGIN_ATTEMPTS UNLIMITED PASSWORD_LIFE_TIME UNLIMITED;

To reset users' status, run the query:

select 'alter user ' || su.name || ' identified by values'    || ' ''' || spare4 || ';'    || su.password || ''';' from sys.user$ su  join dba_users du on ACCOUNT_STATUS like 'EXPIRED%' and su.name = du.username; 

and execute some or all of the result set.