With "/ as sysdba" you get authenticated by the OS, no metter what user/pass you're giving: SQL> conn nouser/nopass as sysdba Connected. SQL> sho user USER is "SYS" SQL> select username from dba_users where username='NOUSER'; no rows selected SQL> Regards, Dimitre Radoulov ----- Original Message ----- From: DBA Deepak To: oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Tuesday, September 06, 2005 12:34 PM Subject: URGENT: Strange Problem... Please help... Hi Gurus, I used the following set of commands on my DB server. C:\>sqlplus /nolog SQL*Plus: Release 9.2.0.7.0 - Production on Tue Sep 6 15:25:27 2005 Copyright (c) 1982, 2002, Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved. SQL> conn sys/change_on_install as sysdba Connected. SQL> conn sys/change_on_install123 as sysdba Connected. SQL> conn sys/change_on_install123456789 as sysdba Connected. SQL> conn sys/change_on_inasdastall123456789 as sysdba Connected. SQL> I would like to know why does Oracle allow me to connect using any random passowrd for SYS user? We have remote_login_passwordfile=EXCLUSIVE set in the pfile. Please help me... -- Regards, Deepak Oracle DBA