With the new release of every product from every software vendor, there are always the big banner headline features that take up all the marketing "real estate", and 21c will be no exception. These features will certainly get their fair share of attention from the blog-sphere, the official media releases, documentation and the like.

But tucked away in new releases are often little nuggets of gold - small things that can be of tremendous value to customers. Checksums in DataPump is one of these nuggets.

In earlier releases, anyone with a hex editor, a little internals knowledge and some patience could take a DataPump export file and manipulate the contents. For example, here I have exported the standard SCOTT schema

 [oracle@db192 ~]$ expdp userid=mcdonac/******@pdb1 directory=tmp dumpfile=scott schemas=scott  Export: Release 19.0.0.0.0 - Production on Mon Aug 16 11:30:42 2021 Version 19.12.0.0.0  Copyright (c) 1982, 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates.  All rights reserved.  Connected to: Oracle Database 19c Enterprise Edition Release 19.0.0.0.0 - Production Starting "MCDONAC"."SYS_EXPORT_SCHEMA_01":  userid=mcdonac/********@pdb1 directory=tmp dumpfile=scott schemas=scott  Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/TABLE/TABLE_DATA Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/TABLE/INDEX/STATISTICS/INDEX_STATISTICS Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/TABLE/STATISTICS/TABLE_STATISTICS Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/STATISTICS/MARKER Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/USER Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/ROLE_GRANT Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/DEFAULT_ROLE Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/TABLESPACE_QUOTA Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/PRE_SCHEMA/PROCACT_SCHEMA Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/TABLE/TABLE Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/TABLE/CONSTRAINT/CONSTRAINT Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/TABLE/CONSTRAINT/REF_CONSTRAINT . . exported "SCOTT"."EMP"                               8.773 KB      14 rows . . exported "SCOTT"."DEPT"                              6.023 KB       4 rows . . exported "SCOTT"."SALGRADE"                          5.953 KB       5 rows . . exported "SCOTT"."BONUS"                                 0 KB       0 rows Master table "MCDONAC"."SYS_EXPORT_SCHEMA_01" successfully loaded/unloaded ****************************************************************************** Dump file set for MCDONAC.SYS_EXPORT_SCHEMA_01 is:   /tmp/scott.dmp Job "MCDONAC"."SYS_EXPORT_SCHEMA_01" successfully completed at Mon Aug 16 11:31:19 2021 elapsed 0 00:00:35

and then tinkered with the export file via a hex editor:

pump_hack

Lo and behold, on the subsequent import, we no longer have a MARTIN but they have been replaced with me!

 [oracle@db192 tmp]$ impdp userid=mcdonac/****@pdb1 directory=tmp dumpfile=scott schemas=scott  Import: Release 19.0.0.0.0 - Production on Mon Aug 16 11:40:06 2021 Version 19.12.0.0.0  Copyright (c) 1982, 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates.  All rights reserved.  Connected to: Oracle Database 19c Enterprise Edition Release 19.0.0.0.0 - Production Master table "MCDONAC"."SYS_IMPORT_SCHEMA_01" successfully loaded/unloaded Starting "MCDONAC"."SYS_IMPORT_SCHEMA_01":  userid=mcdonac/********@pdb1 directory=tmp dumpfile=scott schemas=scott  Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/USER ORA-31684: Object type USER:"SCOTT" already exists  Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/ROLE_GRANT Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/DEFAULT_ROLE Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/TABLESPACE_QUOTA Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/PRE_SCHEMA/PROCACT_SCHEMA Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/TABLE/TABLE Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/TABLE/TABLE_DATA . . imported "SCOTT"."EMP"                               8.773 KB      14 rows . . imported "SCOTT"."DEPT"                              6.023 KB       4 rows . . imported "SCOTT"."SALGRADE"                          5.953 KB       5 rows . . imported "SCOTT"."BONUS"                                 0 KB       0 rows Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/TABLE/CONSTRAINT/CONSTRAINT Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/TABLE/INDEX/STATISTICS/INDEX_STATISTICS Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/TABLE/CONSTRAINT/REF_CONSTRAINT Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/TABLE/STATISTICS/TABLE_STATISTICS Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/STATISTICS/MARKER Job "MCDONAC"."SYS_IMPORT_SCHEMA_01" completed with 1 error(s) at Mon Aug 16 11:40:25 2021 elapsed 0 00:00:18  [oracle@db192 tmp]$    SQL> select * from scott.emp;       EMPNO ENAME      JOB              MGR HIREDATE         SAL       COMM     DEPTNO ---------- ---------- --------- ---------- --------- ---------- ---------- ----------       7369 SMITH      CLERK           7902 17-DEC-80        800                    20       7499 ALLEN      SALESMAN        7698 20-FEB-81       1600        300         30       7521 WARD       SALESMAN        7698 22-FEB-81       1250        500         30       7566 JONES      MANAGER         7839 02-APR-81       2975                    20       7654 CONNOR     SALESMAN        7698 28-SEP-81       1250       1400         30       7698 BLAKE      MANAGER         7839 01-MAY-81       2850                    30       7782 CLARK      MANAGER         7839 09-JUN-81       2450                    10       7788 SCOTT      ANALYST         7566 09-DEC-82       3000                    20       7839 KING       PRESIDENT            17-NOV-81       5000                    10       7844 TURNER     SALESMAN        7698 08-SEP-81       1500                    30       7876 ADAMS      CLERK           7788 12-JAN-83       1100                    20       7900 JAMES      CLERK           7698 03-DEC-81        950                    30       7902 FORD       ANALYST         7566 03-DEC-81       3000                    20       7934 MILLER     CLERK           7782 23-JAN-82       1300                    10  14 rows selected.

Tampering with non-string datatypes such as dates and numbers, take a little more care, but there are plenty of "How To" blog posts out there that describe the format of data within an Oracle database.

21c now lets you protect your DataPump export files from simple tampering with the CHECKSUM parameter. Here's the same process repeated again under 21c.

 [oracle@db21c ~]$ expdp userid=mcdonac/****@pdb1 directory=temp dumpfile=scott schemas=scott checksum=yes  Export: Release 21.0.0.0.0 - Production on Fri Aug 13 04:11:34 2021 Version 21.3.0.0.0  Copyright (c) 1982, 2021, Oracle and/or its affiliates.  All rights reserved.  Connected to: Oracle Database 21c Enterprise Edition Release 21.0.0.0.0 - Production Starting "MCDONAC"."SYS_EXPORT_SCHEMA_01":  userid=mcdonac/********@pdb1 directory=temp dumpfile=scott schemas=scott checksum=yes  Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/TABLE/TABLE_DATA Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/TABLE/INDEX/STATISTICS/INDEX_STATISTICS Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/TABLE/STATISTICS/TABLE_STATISTICS Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/STATISTICS/MARKER Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/USER Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/ROLE_GRANT Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/DEFAULT_ROLE Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/TABLESPACE_QUOTA Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/PRE_SCHEMA/PROCACT_SCHEMA Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/TABLE/TABLE Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/TABLE/CONSTRAINT/CONSTRAINT Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/TABLE/CONSTRAINT/REF_CONSTRAINT . . exported "SCOTT"."EMP"                               8.773 KB      14 rows . . exported "SCOTT"."DEPT"                              6.023 KB       4 rows . . exported "SCOTT"."SALGRADE"                          5.953 KB       5 rows . . exported "SCOTT"."BONUS"                                 0 KB       0 rows Master table "MCDONAC"."SYS_EXPORT_SCHEMA_01" successfully loaded/unloaded Generating checksums for dump file set ****************************************************************************** Dump file set for MCDONAC.SYS_EXPORT_SCHEMA_01 is:   /tmp/scott.dmp Job "MCDONAC"."SYS_EXPORT_SCHEMA_01" successfully completed at Fri Aug 13 04:12:21 2021 elapsed 0 00:00:40  
 
[oracle@db21c scripts]$ impdp userid=mcdonac/******@pdb1 directory=temp dumpfile=scott schemas=scott verify_checksum=yes  Import: Release 21.0.0.0.0 - Production on Sun Aug 15 23:53:29 2021 Version 21.3.0.0.0  Copyright (c) 1982, 2021, Oracle and/or its affiliates.  All rights reserved.  Connected to: Oracle Database 21c Enterprise Edition Release 21.0.0.0.0 - Production ORA-39002: invalid operation ORA-39412: file checksum error in dump file "/tmp/scott.dmp"   

Note: If you do not specify the VERIFY_CHECKSUM parameter, the import will happily proceed, even if someone has tampered with your dump file (and still ended up with a valid file).

Before 21c, you could certainly enact manual processes around DataPump to mimic this, eg, an MD5 or similar stored alongside every DataPump file, and some initial checking before running the import, but as well know - every list of manual processes is just as likely to be on a list of forgotten steps Smile.

Obviously calculating and verifying a checksum has a slight overhead, so make sure you do sensible testing in your environment before you throw it onto your 500TB export!