Admin Rights for Everyone
Steve thinks administrator rights for too many people is a bad idea, but even when it's a limited group, he recommends some sort of governance.
2026-08-26
255 reads
Security
Kerberos Authentication for Aurora PostgreSQL: Mapping AD Groups to Database Roles
Learn how you can enable map your security roles in Aurora PostgreSQL to AD groups using Kerberos.
2026-08-26
1,266 reads
The “Successful Login” Dilemma: Why Your Login Auditing Strategy Might Be Hurting Your Server
From bloated error logs to risky logon triggers, a guide to auditing connections without killing performance.
2026-07-29
2,575 reads
A Security and AI Fail
Security is an important consideration for anyone working with data, but it's especially a concern with AI.
2026-07-15
172 reads
The New Wave of Security Threats
New AI tools are discovering older vulnerabilities in software, as well as new ones. Get ready for a bunch of patches to come out.
2026-05-09
171 reads
Securing Your Databases in 2026: Best Practices for the Evolving Threat Landscape
In 2026, your approach to both applications and databases must be focused on practical and technical real-world operations and use cases rather than just hype.
2026-02-16
Exploiting SQL Server Date Correlation Optimization: How Tampered Backups Enable Cross-Database Data Leaks
This article reveals a critical SQL Server flaw: attackers can weaponize Date Correlation Optimization (DCO) views in restored backups
2026-02-13
No Defaults Passwords Ever
Steve doesn't see a reason why we should have default passwords on systems ever.
2026-01-17
121 reads
Minimally Viable Security
Today Steve talks about the need for a basic level of security in our software.
2026-01-05
137 reads
SQL Server DBaaS Vulnerability: Decrypting System Code & Exfiltrating User Data
Security in cloud environments is both challenging and fascinating, particularly for Database-as-a-Service (DBaaS) offerings like Amazon RDS, GCP CloudSQL and Alibaba ApsaraDB RDS. The cloud vendor acts as the system administrator, managing the operating system, patching, and backups, while the user manages their data and databases.
2025-12-03
Blogs
The flight recorder: Replaying what an AI agent did on my SQL Server
By Arun Sirpal
“What exactly did it do on my server?” is the first question a DBA...
Announcements from the Microsoft Fabric Community Conference — Barcelona 2026
By James Serra
Microsoft shared a broad set of Fabric, Power BI, and SQL updates at FabCon...
Au Revoir for now
By Steve Jones
No, I’m not quitting or retiring. Just going on vacation, but I leave tonight...
Forums
Let's Talk Certifications
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Let's Talk Certifications, which is...
The Hidden Security Risks of Role Combination in SSAS Tabular
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Hidden Security Risks of...
The Empty Aggregate
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Empty Aggregate
Question of the Day
The Empty Aggregate
I have this table in a SQL Server 2025 database:
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[CustomerOrder] ( [OrderID] [int] NULL, [CustomerID] [int] NULL, [total] [money] NULL ) ON [PRIMARY] GOWhat is returned from this code? (answers are for the sum and then the count)
SELECT SUM(total) AS sum,
COUNT(total) AS count
FROM dbo.CustomerOrder;
See possible answers