SQLServerCentral Editorial

The Pen Test

,

We need something like the Air Force project seeking network vulnerabilities for our database systems. While there are tools that can help from the outside, but we need SQL Server specific tools. Why don't we have a Best Practices Analyzer for SQL Server 2014 (or 2016)? It seems as though this is one of those tools that we should have available for checking against instances and determining if there are obvious vulnerabilities. Being able to add custom extensions for particular needs would also be nice.

I guess if this is important to your organization, you'll pay for a tool (or a pen test), but the problem is far, far too many organizations just don't take security seriously. It seems that despite the huge costs incurred for not properly securing computer systems, the penalties aren't nearly enough to get every company to patch their systems and write secure code. Most just hope they're never attacked, or if they are, no one finds out.

I'd really like to see some tools, or maybe just a best practice process that would allow system administrators to test their own systems. I found this post from PenTestLab, and I think it's great. The article is a good start for what to look for and what issues might exist. However even better than this might be a series of automated items we can run that showcase to management, developers, and DBAs when they've made a mistake that potentially opens a system to attack. Maybe best of all would be getting software vendors to actually run these types of tools against their applications and provide some proof they've built secure code.

I don't hold out hope that security will improve anytime soon, but I do hope that more system administrators learn about what issues potentially exist and check their systems for potential vulnerabilities before someone else discovers the issues exist. Lastly, I hope they all share what they learn.

Rate

5 (1)

You rated this post out of 5. Change rating

Share

Share

Rate

5 (1)

You rated this post out of 5. Change rating