SQL Server database security

VARs can offer database clients two classes of security services:

• Monitoring services
• Best practices analysis

Important monitoring services include the following:

1. Intrusion detection -- SQL Injection or buffer overflow attacks like SQL Slammer.
2. Unauthorized object access as part of the larger umbrella of Sarbanes Oxley compliance.
3. Destructive DDL commands -- drop table statements.
4. Account rights escalation – guest role account enabling, or adding a low privileged user account to the sysadmin role.

As new exploits are discovered, continuous threat analysis is an important service for a VAR to offer.

Best practices analysis can include the following:

1. Checks for weak or no passwords.
2. Scans to ensure that all accounts are running under the least privileges.
3. Locking down of xp_cmdshell and other features which may expose your SQL Servers to exploits.
4. limiting use of the guest account and the sysadmin role.