Press "Enter" to skip to content

Category: Security

Registering an SPN for SQL Server

Published 2021-05-11 by Kevin Feasel

Jack Vamvas explains how to register an SPN for SQL Server:

I received a question from a colleague asking how to register a Service Principal Name (SPN) for SQL Server. The specific situation relates to upgrades and new SQL Server instances deployed onto new servers\server names . 

Defining an SPN results in an Active Directory name – allowing a client to uniquely identify  the service instance.  The SPN is comprised of a service name with a computer and user account resulting in a Service id. 

Read on for the process.

Comments closed

Securing Amazon Managed Streaming for Kafka

Published 2021-05-07 by Kevin Feasel

Stephane Maarek has some security advice for us:

AWS launched IAM Access Control for Amazon MSK, which is a security option offered at no additional cost that simplifies cluster authentication and Apache Kafka API authorization using AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) roles or user policies to control access. This eliminates the need for administrators to run an unfamiliar system to control access to Apache Kafka on Amazon MSK, and learn intricate details and specific commands to manage Apache Kafka access control lists (ACLs).

This is a game-changer from a security perspective for AWS customers who use Apache Kafka: I recommend Amazon MSK customers use IAM Access Control unless they have a specific need for using mutual TLS or SASL/SCRAM authN/Z.

Read on to see how it works.

Comments closed

Availability Groups and Logins

Published 2021-05-04 by Kevin Feasel

Andrea Allred runs into a post-failover issue:

While doing a planned Availability Group failover, the application stopped talking to the database. After checking the SQL Server log, we found that all the SQL Logins were failing with an “incorrect password” error. The logins were on the server, the users were in the databases, and the passwords were even right, so what was wrong? It all comes down to SID’s (Security Identifiers).

Read on for the cause and the solution. I’d also recommend Sync-DbaAvailabilityGroup as a good dbatools cmdlet to use.

Comments closed

User-Defined Roles in SQL Server

Published 2021-04-30 by Kevin Feasel

Greg Larsen shows us how to create and use user-defined security roles in SQL Server:

When developing an application that accesses SQL Server, you need to set up a security model, so each user gets the access they need based on their job duties. Some applications require the same access for all users, while other application might require different security access rights based on the role a user has in the organization. The best practice for providing user access is to use role-based security. SQL Server provides user-defined Server and Database roles for defining security rules for different user security needs. This article will discuss how to use user-defined server and database roles to provide secure access to SQL Server resources.

This is something I think DBAs tend to under-utilize. Granted, a big part of why I think DBAs under-utilize it is that we often have Windows groups that we can use as the base for roles, but even so, it’s a good way to secure assets in the database.

Comments closed

HDFS Data Encryption at Rest

Published 2021-04-26 by Kevin Feasel

Arun Kumar Natva takes us through the process of encrypting data at rest in Cloudera Data Platform:

HDFS Encryption delivers transparent end-to-end encryption of data at rest and is an integral part of HDFS. End to end encryption means that the data is only encrypted and decrypted by the client. In other words, data remains encrypted until it reaches the HDFS client.

Each HDFS file is encrypted using an encryption key. To prevent the management of these keys (which can run in the millions) from becoming a performance bottleneck, the encryption key itself is stored in the file metadata. To add another layer of security, the file encryption key is stored in encrypted form, using another “encryption zone key”.

Read on to learn more and to see how it all fits together.

Comments closed

Service Endpoints in Azure SQL Database

Published 2021-04-26 by Kevin Feasel

Mike Wood takes us through service endpoints in Azure:

In previous installments of my “Securing Azure SQL Database” series, I covered Azure SQL Database firewall rules and private endpoints—the first of which is a way to help reduce the public exposure of your database endpoint and the second being a means to remove all public access if necessary. Each option has unique benefits, and some scenarios might call for a mix of the two options.

In this blog post, I’ll cover a third option for securing Azure SQL Database—service endpoints. This option is similar to private endpoints in that you restrict public access and only grant access to the database through your Virtual Network (VNet).

Read on to learn more.

Comments closed

Working with Secrets in Powershell

Published 2021-04-20 by Kevin Feasel

Jeffrey Hicks tries out the Secrets Management modules in Powershell:

So I’ve been kicking the tires and trying to do more with the Secrets Management modules from Microsoft, now that they are out of pre-release status. You can install the Microsoft.PowerShell.SecretStore and Microsoft.PowerShell.SecretManagement modules, you’ll need both, from the PowerShell Gallery. You can find extension modules that build on the Microsoft modules for working with other key vaults or secret store. Run find-module -tag secretmanagement to find additional modules. But what I want to talk about today relates to the Microsoft modules. Although, it might apply to you with any of the extension modules. The challenge is using the secrets management modules with a PowerShell profile script.

Read on for a challenge around running scheduled tasks which require secrets and a solution.

Comments closed

QUOTENAME and Dynamic SQL

Published 2021-04-20 by Kevin Feasel

Chris Johnson looks at one way to protect dynamic SQL statements:

I don’t have the usual aversion to dynamic SQL that you find a lot of developers have. I use it quite regularly as part of my ETL processes, usually to define how data will move from one stage to another. So, for instance, I might have a single Validate procedure that takes a number of parameters, including an import table name, and moves data from that import table to a valid table according to my validation rules. Or I might have a single SCDMerge procedure that takes a transformation view and merges that into a slowly changing dimension (although not using the actual MERGE function for various reasons). These procedures allow me to have confidence that data will always move from one stage to another in the same way, and saves me from writing essentially the same statement 50 times, and having to update it 50 times when I need to change the way we do something, and inevitably missing something and introducing some error.

This always feels like a pretty safe use of dynamic SQL to me, because it avoids some of the more common objections people like to raise to it:

Click through to see how QUOTENAME() can help sanitize user inputs. I personally prefer the route of using sp_executesql but QUOTENAME() can also do the trick.

Comments closed

Using AD Authentication on Linux when Connecting to SQL Server

Published 2021-04-16 by Kevin Feasel

Daniel Hutmacher shares some hard-earned wisdom:

I’m a complete beginner at Linux, so I should preface this post with the fact that these are my humble notes after hours of pulling my hair. It’s not really a fully-fledged how-to article, and there are lot of things I’m not covering. But I figured it may help someone out there at some point.

Also, different Linux distros and versions will behave differently, so your mileage will most likely vary.

For the purposes of this post, I’m on Red Hat Enterprise 8.3.

Note that this is using a Linux-based client, rather than talking about SQL Server on Linux.

Comments closed