The AuthenticationMethod connection property controls which authentication mechanism the driver uses when establishing connections. When AuthenticationMethod=auto (default), the driver uses user ID/password, Kerberos, or NTLM authentication when establishing a connection based on the following criteria:

  • If a user ID and password is specified, the driver uses user ID/password authentication when establishing a connection. The User property provides the user ID. The Password property provides the password.
  • If a user ID and password is not specified and the driver is not running on a Windows platform, the driver uses Kerberos authentication when establishing a connection.
  • If a user ID and password is not specified and the driver is running on a Windows platform, the driver uses NTLM authentication when establishing a connection if the driver can load the DLL required for NTLM authentication. If the driver cannot load the DLL, the driver uses Kerberos authentication.

When AuthenticationMethod=kerberos, the driver uses Kerberos authentication when establishing a connection. The driver ignores any values specified by the User and Password properties.

When AuthenticationMethod=kerberosUIDPassword, the driver first uses Kerberos when establishing a connection. Next, the driver reauthenticates the user using user ID/password authentication. The User property provides the user ID. The Password property provides the password. If a user ID and password are not specified, the driver throws an exception. If either Kerberos or user ID/password authentication fails, the connection attempt fails and the driver throws an exception.

When AuthenticationMethod=ntlm, the driver uses NTLM authentication when establishing a connection if the driver can load the DLL required for NTLM authentication. If the driver cannot load the DLL, the driver throws an exception. The driver ignores any values specified by the User and Password properties.

When AuthenticationMethod=client, the driver uses client authentication when establishing a connection. The Oracle database server relies on the client to authenticate the user and does not provide additional authentication. The driver ignores any values specified by the User and Password properties.

When AuthenticationMethod=userIdPassword, the driver uses user ID/password authentication when establishing a connection. The User property provides the user ID. The Password property provides the password. If a user ID is not specified, the driver throws an exception.

Note: If the NewPassword connection property is specified, its value is used only if user ID/password authentication is enabled explicitly (AuthenticationMethod=userIdPassword) or implicitly (AuthenticationMethod=auto and a user ID and password is supplied); otherwise, the driver throws an exception.