ORA-01017: invalid username/password;logon denied

There were other similar questions asked, but none that were able to tell me why I can't connect using a C# .NET web site I've stood up. While I know this forum is more for DBAs connecting to databases using tools and not so much troubleshooting apps connecting, I thought I'd give it a shot posting the question here.

The web site works/connects from my workstation when ran from Visual Studio, but when I publish it to the server, it gives me the ORA-01017: invalid username/password;logon denied error, even though I can connect via everything else with the same account/password. Situation:

• I can connect using Oracle SQL Developer, SQL*Plus just fine with the account I'm using... let's call it "myaccount".

• Using Net Manager, I can expand "Service Naming" and see the entries from my tnsnames.ora.

a. The same string that exists in tnsnames.ora/Service Naming area, exists as a hard-coded string in my application, with the exception of things like the host name, service name, port, user name, and password, which are passed-in as parameters from my web.config.

b. I can click a connection name and everything appears correctly, and clicking "Test Service" > "Change Login" > enter "myaccount" and password > click OK > click "Test" succeeds.

c. I have double-checked my parameters in my web.config - nothing has changed since the web site ran on my local workstation.

• tnsping CONNECTION_NAME succeeds.

• Environmental variables are the same on both computers, as are the Oracle client locations.

a. ORACLE_HOME = C:\oracle\product\12

b. PATH = C:\oracle\product\12\bin; .....

c. TNS_ADMIN = C:\oracle\product\12\network\admin

d. Registry entry added to HKLM\Software\Oracle\KEY_OraClient12Home for TNS_ADMIN = C:\oracle\product\12\network\admin

• I've tried the ALTER SYSTEM SET SEC_CASE_SENSITIVE_LOGON = FALSE; command and reset the password, just in case that was the issue. I tried connecting with all-caps versions of myaccount and its passwo

I have seen this only once so far, but there is an issue described in the My Oracle Suppport note:

FIPS use causes ORA-01017: Invalid Username/password with Managed ODP.NET (Doc ID 1937500.1)

I will not post the full content of this as it is not public, but here is the essence:


This bug has been fixed in 12.1.0.2 Managed Provider. Please note that the DB version must be 12.1.0.2 or higher for this fix to work as expected.


The workaround is to set in the registry
System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\FIPSAlgorithmPolicy\Enabled to
0.

Some public references to this matter:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/26410951/oracle-manageddataaccess-and-ora-01017-invalid-username-password-logon-denied

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/31785650/ora-01005-error-connecting-with-odp-net

https://community.oracle.com/thread/2557592?start=0&tstart=0

StackExchange Database Administrators Q#142085, answer score: 5