More on the weakness of the passwords:

http://www.nextgenss.com/papers/cracking-sql-passwords.pdf

Of course, since this technique requires access to sysxlogins, you can only implement as a sysadmin. Of course, if someone can take advantage of a SQL server vulnerability to escalate his or her access (called privilege escalation)... you get the idea.

The software that came out of the research:

http://www.nextgenss.com/software/ngssqlcrack.html

The review by Steve:

http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/sjones/reviewmssqlcrack.asp

The biggest weakness, of course, is if the network traffic can be sniffed and either multiprotocol (with encryption) or SSL are not in use.

K. Brian Kelley

http://www.truthsolutions.com/

Author: Start to Finish Guide to SQL Server Performance Monitoring

http://www.netimpress.com/shop/product.asp?ProductID=NI-SQL1