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Category: Security

Creating a Power BI VNet Data Gateway

Published 2023-08-02 by Kevin Feasel

Meagan Longoria rolls up her sleeves:

If you are using Power BI to connect to a PaaS resource on a virtual network in Azure (including private endpoints), you need a data gateway. While you can use an on-premises data gateway (the type of Power BI gateway we have had for years), there is an offering called a virtual network data gateway that is currently in preview.

The VNet data gateway securely communicates with the data source, executes queries, and transmits results back to the service, just like the on-premises data gateway. But it doesn’t require us to provision a virtual machine in the same network (or a peered network) of our Azure data source.

Read on to see some important caveats, as well as a step-by-step guide.

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Secrets Management in Docker Swarm

Published 2023-08-02 by Kevin Feasel

Andrew Pruski has a secret:

In a previous post I went through how to run SQL Server in Docker Swarm and in this post I want to continue delving into the Docker Swarm platform by looking at secrets.

Like Kubernetes, Docker Swarm has functionality to store sensitive data in secrets. When running SQL Server in containers we usually have to manually type out the environment variable for the MSSQL_SA_PASSWORD which isn’t great if we want to store that code in a public repository so being able to obfuscate that password is great!

Read on for a failed first attempt, followed by analysis and then success.

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Mitigating Dynamic Data Masking Side-Channel Attacks

Published 2023-07-31 by Kevin Feasel

Ben Johnston wraps up a series on dynamic data masking:

This is the fifth and final part of this series on SQL Server Dynamic Data Masking. The first part in the series was a brief introduction to dynamic data masking, completing solutions, and use cases. The second part covered setting up masking and some examples. The third and fourth sections explored side channel attacks against dynamic data masking.

This final part covers mitigations to side channel attacks, additional architectural considerations and an analysis of the overall solution.

Throughout the entire series, Ben has done a good job of laying out exactly what dynamic data masking is good for—and what it isn’t good for. I tend to harp a lot on the latter but Ben keeps a reasonable approach throughout this series.

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A Primer on Postgres Database Security

Published 2023-07-28 by Kevin Feasel

Murtaza Umair provides guidance:

Keeping your database up to date with the latest PostgreSQL release is vital in maintaining the security of your database. Once every year, PostgreSQL comes out with a new release, which includes new features, security enhancements, and performance improvements. Each major release is supported for five years, during which PostgreSQL releases quarterly minor updates to fix bugs and patch security issues. The schedule for new updates and more information is given on PostgreSQL’s website, at https://www.postgresql.org/developer/roadmap/. 

Nothing in this is earth-shattering but it is a solid overview.

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Testing Multi-User PBI Row-Level Security in Excel

Published 2023-07-27 by Kevin Feasel

Gilbert Quevauvilliers performs a test:

I have been doing a fair amount of work on Row Level Security (RLS) where the requirements were quite complex to implement.

Once I had completed the implementation of RLS there were two outstanding items I needed to test.

  1. Make sure that the users are only viewing the data they should see.
  2. Ensure that the performance of a selected user is still as fast as possible.

I would like to mention that this certainly can be done using DAX studio to get the query performance stats, I wanted to test this using Excel.

Gilbert had to do a fair amount here, but there’s a nice walkthrough indicating how to do it all.

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Power BI Dataset Data Source Credential Options

Published 2023-07-25 by Kevin Feasel

Angela Henry puts together a list:

If we are using enterprise-wide datasets, we don’t want Power BI datasets owned by individuals; we want them to be owned by a Service Principle so they aren’t relying on specific individuals when things go sideways (and because we all want to go on vacation at some point). However, it’s not always clear on what credentials will actually be used for our data sources in our datasets when using a Service Principle. In a previous post, I talked about how to set up a service principle to take over a dataset when using data gateways, but one of the pre-requisites I listed was that your data sources needed to be configured with appropriate credentials. That’s where this post comes in.

You essentially have three options for data source credentials, depending on your data source type.

Click through for that list of three options, as well as the trade-offs inherent in each.

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TDE and Credential Rotation for Arc SQL Managed Instance

Published 2023-07-20 by Kevin Feasel

Nikita Takru announces a new public preview:

We are thrilled to announce the Public Preview of Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) and Service-Managed Credential Rotation for Arc-enabled SQL Managed Instance. With a strong focus on data security and management, this release introduces cutting-edge features that ensure your sensitive information is protected.  

Click through for more details, particularly on automating credential rotation.

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CREATEROLE in Postgres

Published 2023-07-20 by Kevin Feasel

Muhammad Ali creates a role:

PostgreSQL is a robust open-source relational database management system that provides a wide range of capabilities to guarantee safe and effective data administration. One such privilege is the CREATEROLE privilege, which is vital to PostgreSQL database management of users and roles. We will examine the nuances of the CREATEROLE privilege, its use, and how it affects user administration in this blog post. So let’s investigate this privilege and comprehend PostgreSQL’s use of it.

Click through to see how this privilege works and what has changed in different versions of Postgres.

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