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Category: Security

Securing Mirrored Databricks Data in Fabric

Published 2025-06-05 by Kevin Feasel

Aaron Merrill has a catalog:

With this update, Azure Mirrored Databricks Catalog items can now be enabled with OneLake security. Security at the table, column, or row level can be defined directly in each item, allowing access to be controlled at a granular level. This allows security to be defined directly over the data mirrored into OneLake so it can be securely used by downstream sources such as lakehouses, notebooks, or semantic models.  

Read on to see what to do in order to make use of this. It is, of course, currently in preview.

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OneLake Security and Shortcuts

Published 2025-05-29 by Kevin Feasel

Aaron Merrill explains how OneLake security works when you introduce shortcuts:

OneLake allows for security to be defined once and enforced consistently across Microsoft Fabric. One of its standout features is its ability to work seamlessly with shortcuts, offering users the flexibility to access and organize data from different locations while maintaining robust security controls. In this blog post, we will look at how OneLake security is integrated with shortcuts, explain the distinction between passthrough and delegated auth modes for shortcuts, and look at an example use case.

Read on for an overview of OneLake shortcuts, as well as different security models around them.

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Explaining Logins vs Users in SQL Server

Published 2025-05-29 by Kevin Feasel

Kevin Hill explains that there are two wolves inside your SQL Server:

“We added them to the database, but they still can’t connect.”

Sound familiar? That’s the kind of confusion SQL Server’s two-layer security model creates when people don’t understand the difference between a login and a user.

Let’s clear that up, because getting it wrong causes broken access, orphaned users, and frustrated help desk calls.

Click through for Kevin’s explanation.

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sqlcmd in SQL Server 2025 and Certificate Chain Not Trusted

Published 2025-05-27 by Kevin Feasel

Vlad Drumea points out a new thing to keep an eye on:

SQL Server 2025 provides ODBC sqlcmd version 17 which enforces an encrypted connection.

If you’re trying to use it to connect to instances that don’t have a CA-signed certificate or where TLS encryption was never properly configured, sqlcmd will throw the famous “certificate chain not trusted” error message:

Sqlcmd: Error: Microsoft ODBC Driver 18 for SQL Server : SSL Provider: The certificate chain was issued by an authority that is not trusted.
Sqlcmd: Error: Microsoft ODBC Driver 18 for SQL Server : Client unable to establish connection.

The proper answer to this is to get trusted certificates. The workaround is what Vlad describes, so click through for that.

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Preventing Injection Attacks in Shiny

Published 2025-05-23 by Kevin Feasel

Arthur Breant shares some advice:

Code injection is a common security vulnerability that involves injecting malicious code into a page or application. This code is then executed, creating the security breach. There are several ways to inject code into an application, and Shiny is unfortunately not immune to these risks.

Click through for a quick overview of the three most common types of injection attack. There’s nothing special about Shiny here—any system that executes code based on user input is potentially vulnerable to injection attacks—so it is good to keep these tips in mind. H/T R-Bloggers.

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Auditing SQL Server Login Options

Published 2025-05-20 by Kevin Feasel

Chad Callihan audits logins:

Do you know who is logging into your SQL Server?

I was once asked about the need to track SQL Server logins. Many servers were already tracking failed logins. Where the issue came up in this case was tracking successful logins to determine login usage. Let’s take a quick look at how we can track both failed and successful logins.

Security-oriented me always wants both failed and successful logins, as you want to know if the person who failed to log in eight times did in fact successfully log in on the ninth attempt.

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sudo in Windows

Published 2025-05-12 by Kevin Feasel

Patrick Gruenauer elevates our access:

Sudo for Windows is a new way for users to execute commands with elevated privileges (as an administrator) directly from a non-relevant console session on Windows.

The following requirements apply to the use of sudo in Windows:

  1. Windows 11 24H2
  2. Sudo needs to be enabled

Click through to see how to activate sudo. The English-language header reads “System > For Developers” and the exact setting is at the bottom of the first section and has the name “Enable sudo” with a toggle switch. The number of times I’ve run a command just to see it error out because I needed to be in an administrative command prompt or PowerShell terminal is high enough that I immediately turned it on.

But importantly, this is different from Linux, in that it opens up a new command prompt or PowerShell terminal rather than executing the command with elevated permissions in the same prompt. This is important because that new prompt goes away after the command finishes, so you lose the output. In other words, if you run sudo ipconfig in a command prompt, it will hit you with a UAC request (depending on how you’ve configured your PC) and then run ipconfig in a new command prompt, which disappears as soon as the command finishes. You don’t get to keep what was in stdout. I think this limits some of the capability of the option, unfortunately.

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Checking Key Vault Access in Microsoft Fabric Spark Notebooks

Published 2025-05-09 by Kevin Feasel

Marc Lelijveld has clearance:

Working with sensitive data in Microsoft Fabric requires careful handling of secrets, especially when collaborating externally. In a recent customer engagement, I needed to validate access to Azure Key Vault from within a Fabric Notebook, without ever exposing the actual secret values. With only read access granted and no need to manage or update secrets, I focused on confirming that the connection was working as expected.

In this blog, I’ll walk you through the approach, including the setup, code snippets, and logic behind this quick but crucial verification step.

Click through for the full story.

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Working through an Azure SQL DB Vulnerability Assessment

Published 2025-05-08 by Kevin Feasel

Josephine Bush digs in:

But do you always need them? Not necessarily. A vulnerability assessment might confirm what you already know. On the other hand, if you’re managing multiple environments or collaborating across teams, these tools can catch things you might miss, like forgotten test accounts or relaxed security rules.

They’re not a silver bullet, but can be a smart way to stay proactive. Ensure you understand what you are trying to achieve, not just blindly accept what they tell you.

Click through for an example and some solid advice.

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