Initialization parameters may contain sensitive information, such as user IDs or passwords. Initialization parameters are stored in plain text files and are insecure. An encryption feature has been added to Heterogeneous Services making it possible to encrypt parameter values. This is done through the dg4pwd utility. To use this feature requires setting the value of a parameter in the initialization file to an unquoted asterisk (*). For example:
HD_FDS_CONNECT_INFO = *
With the value set to this security marker, all Heterogeneous Services agents know that the real value will be stored in a related, encrypted password file. The name of this file will be initsid.pwd, where sid is the Oracle system identifier used for the gateway. This file is created by the dg4pwd utility in the current directory containing the initialization file. Running the utility prompts for the real value of the parameter, which the utility will encrypt and store in the password file. It should be noted that encrypted initialization parameters are implicitly treated as PRIVATE parameters and are not uploaded to the server.