July 15, 2013 at 9:54 pm
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Hack Resistant?
July 16, 2013 at 2:13 am
Hack resistant databases in the UK??
Some of the software houses that I have come across in the past don't know anything about protecting the data or personal information. Only when there has been the threat of prison did one company remove the list of 800K credit cards that weren't being used from the database.
July 16, 2013 at 5:38 am
The service accounts that your web sites use to connect to the SQL database, can be locked down to only permit stored procedure execution, and of course, those procs must be written to validate input parameter values. So with the right precautions, SQL injection vulnerability can be reduced.
TDE of course, protects your data at rest, ie if someone gets ahold of the MDF file.
Nice article, thanks Steve!
July 16, 2013 at 5:47 am
Oddly enough, there's a lot out there on the web about preventing SQL injection attacks, but to be honest, I see a lot of pages either giving very generic guidelines or trying to sell something, and sites that give really good examples and procedures seem to be more exception than rule.
Not saying you *can't* find good documentation on the subject and yes, there are a lot of parts and pieces to the issue, but I would like to see more practical tutorials rather than simply stating "use stored procedures" or "validate user input" without explaining how to achieve these things.
Being someone who has learned SQL the hard way - by researching and doing, I can tell you web resources are invaluable to someone like me. I've found some good, practical web pages on the subject, but in my experience it takes a bit of digging. Your mileage may vary.
Maybe a good subject for one of the gurus here on SSC to do a "Stairway" series?
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Just my $0.02 from over here in the cheap seats of the peanut gallery - please adjust for inflation and/or your local currency.
July 16, 2013 at 6:22 am
On a completely side point, the person who posted the photograph appeared not fully understand the function of that lock structure. The extra locks are not to make it tougher to break in, but to assure that all the key holders are present to open the gate. This could be for safety (make sure no workers are unaccounted for before turning equipment on) or to be sure that everyone responsible for that area is actively aware it is open.
Lessons in there for software too.
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-- FORTRAN manual for Xerox Computers --
July 16, 2013 at 7:17 am
I assume the NSA and other governments have access to my systems and databases already, thanks to Microsoft and peers in the industry. So security really isn't much of an issue anymore...
😛
July 16, 2013 at 7:30 am
Based on news stories, it seems to me that the vast majority of data breaches, and the ones that the most massive in scale, are the result of inadequate role based security. That's what happened with the NSA and military breaches.
Where I work, the permissions for service accounts or domain groups are segmented into roles based on least set of privillages required for their function. We also implement symmetric key encryption on PHI columns, so even those accounts with direct access to tables (like DBAs or BI reporting) can't see actual SSN, address, phone, etc.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
July 16, 2013 at 9:05 am
As a dev I'm always stunned when I come across a system that's vulnerable to sql injection given that it's such an easy gap to close. Just don't build up sql strings by concatenating in parameter values. Use proper ado parameters. Unless you're using dynamic sql that's all you need to do, whether you're calling sprocs or using sql direct. Of course, that's a .net centric view of the world but all other major languages support an equivalent.
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