Sometimes you need to reach outside a database and access data and objects from multiple databases, which raises some security issues and increases the complexity of data access. In this stairway level, you’ll learn about cross-database ownership chaining so that you can reach across database boundaries securely.
2024-05-08 (first published: 2015-04-08)
11,418 reads
Even an otherwise well-secured database is susceptible to attack if an attacker is able to get access to the disk files that comprise the database. Cell-level encryption can protect some of the data, but for complete protection against this kind of attack it is necessary to encrypt the files and not just the data. That is exactly what Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) does, and in this stairway level you'll learn what TDE does, how it works, and how to make use of it to protect your database files.
2023-03-15 (first published: 2015-06-03)
6,544 reads
By defining server- and database-level audits, you can record just about any kind of event that occurs in SQL Server, which can be an invaluable source of security troubleshooting and forensic information when security breaches occur. In this stairway level you’ll learn how to define the various audit specification objects, how to capture audit data, and how to explore and use the data.
2023-03-08 (first published: 2015-09-23)
8,741 reads
A permission gives a principal access to an object to perform certain actions on or with the object. SQL Server has a mind-numbingly huge number of permissions that you can grant to a principal, and you can even deny or revoke those permissions. This sounds a bit complicated, but by the end of this stairway level you’ll understand how SQL Server permissions work and how you can exert very granular control over object creation, data access, and other types of actions on database and server objects.
2022-09-28 (first published: 2014-10-15)
9,867 reads
In this stairway level you’ll learn how you can give principals access to groups of objects by assigning permissions on schemas instead of individual tables, code modules, and other objects. You’ll also learn about the benefits of user-schema separation and how it can increase object security, and how using default schemas for users and groups can simplify object access management and security.
2022-09-21 (first published: 2014-12-03)
12,702 reads
Authentication is the first step in letting a principal get access to an instance of SQL Server, essentially resolving the question, Who are you? In this stairway level you’ll learn about the basics of authentication and the authentication options available. This level covers logins and users and you’ll learn about the password policies that can help strengthen SQL Server authentication.
2021-03-17 (first published: 2014-06-18)
10,564 reads
What is a SQL Server principal? And what does it get a permission on? In this stairway level, you’ll learn about the various principals that can be authorized through permissions to perform actions and access securable objects in the SQL Server instance.
2019-08-21 (first published: 2014-07-16)
12,011 reads
The ubiquity of databases and the potentially valuable information stored in them makes them attractive targets for people who want to steal data or harm its owner by tampering with it. Making sure that your data is secure is a critical part of configuring SQL Server and developing applications that use it to store data.
2019-08-07 (first published: 2014-06-04)
15,102 reads
Unlike some other industrial-strength database servers, SQL Server lacks a built-in mechanism for protecting individual data records, called row-level security. This stairway level explores why you might want to use such a low-level granularity of data access security and how you can implement row-level security.
2015-07-29
6,548 reads
This stairway level will explore data protection through encryption, both when the data is in motion across the network or in memory and at rest in a table. You’ll learn about the encryption key hierarchy and the various kinds of keys you can use to encrypt data, as well as how you can manage the keys or let SQL Server do it for you.
2015-04-15
7,765 reads
By Steve Jones
I caught this interesting item over on Pinal Dave’s blog: Eleven Interview Questions that...
By Hemantgiri
I use color-coded connections in SSMS to distinguish Production, Pre-Production, UAT, and Development. But...
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Split Large Queries in Athena...
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Finding Trailing Spaces
I have some data in a SQL Server 2025 database. It looks like this for the dbo.Customer table:
CustomerID CustomerName PreferredName 1 Steve Steve 2 Andy Andy 3 Brian Brian 4 Allan Allan 5 Devin Devin 6 Steve Steve 7 Sally SallyI want to detect which names have a single trailing space. The CustomerName is a varchar() and the PreferredName is a CHAR(). Does this query detect the problem rows?
SELECT
CustomerID,
CustomerName,
PreferredName
FROM Customer
WHERE CustomerName <> RTRIM(CustomerName)
OR PreferredName <> RTRIM(PreferredName); See possible answers