MS SQL Server 2014 Instance Security Technical Implementation Guide
Rules, Groups, and Values defined within the XCCDF Benchmark
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The number of concurrent SQL Server sessions for each system account must be limited.
A variety of technologies exist to limit or, in some cases, eliminate the effects of DoS attacks. For example, boundary protection devices can filter certain types of packets to protect devices on ...Rule Medium Severity -
SQL Server default account [sa] must have its name changed.
SQL Server's [sa] account has special privileges required to administer the database. The [sa] account is a well-known SQL Server account name and is likely to be targeted by attackers, and is thus...Rule Low Severity -
Where SQL Server Audit is in use, SQL Server must allow only the ISSM (or individuals or roles appointed by the ISSM) to select which auditable events are to be audited at the server level.
Without the capability to restrict which roles and individuals can select which events are audited, unauthorized personnel may be able to prevent or interfere with the auditing of critical events. ...Rule Medium Severity -
SQL Server must produce Trace or Audit records containing sufficient information to establish the sources (origins) of the events.
Information system auditing capability is critical for accurate forensic analysis. Audit record content which may be necessary to satisfy the requirement of this control includes, but is not limite...Rule Medium Severity -
SQL Server must produce Trace or Audit records containing sufficient information to establish the outcome (success or failure) of the events.
Information system auditing capability is critical for accurate forensic analysis. Audit record content which may be necessary to satisfy the requirement of this control includes, but is not limite...Rule Medium Severity -
Unless it has been determined that availability is paramount, SQL Server must shut down upon the failure of an Audit, or a Trace used for auditing purposes, to include the unavailability of space for more audit/trace log records.
It is critical that when SQL Server is at risk of failing to process audit logs as required, it take action to mitigate the failure. Audit processing failures include: software/hardware errors; fai...Rule Medium Severity -
The audit information produced by SQL Server must be protected from unauthorized read access.
If audit data were to become compromised, competent forensic analysis and discovery of the true source of potentially malicious system activity would be difficult, if not impossible, to achieve. In...Rule Medium Severity -
The audit information produced by SQL Server must be protected from unauthorized modification.
If audit data were to become compromised, competent forensic analysis and discovery of the true source of potentially malicious system activity would be impossible to achieve. To ensure the veraci...Rule Medium Severity -
SQL Server and the operating system must protect SQL Server audit features from unauthorized removal.
Protecting audit data also includes identifying and protecting the tools used to view and manipulate log data. Therefore, protecting audit tools is necessary to prevent unauthorized operation on au...Rule Medium Severity -
Software, applications, and configuration files that are part of, or related to, the SQL Server installation must be monitored to discover unauthorized changes.
When dealing with change control issues, it should be noted, any changes to the hardware, software, and/or firmware components of applications and tools related to SQL Server can potentially have s...Rule Medium Severity -
Database software directories, including SQL Server configuration files, must be stored in dedicated directories, separate from the host OS and other applications.
When dealing with change control issues, it should be noted, any changes to the hardware, software, and/or firmware components of the information system and/or application can potentially have sign...Rule Low Severity -
SQL Server must have the publicly available AdventureWorks sample database removed.
Information systems are capable of providing a wide variety of functions and services. Some of the functions and services, provided by default, may not be necessary to support essential organizatio...Rule Medium Severity -
SQL Server must have the SQL Server Distributed Replay Client software component removed if it is unused.
Information systems are capable of providing a wide variety of functions and services. Some of the functions and services, provided by default or selected for installation by an administrator, may ...Rule Medium Severity -
SQL Server must have the SQL Server Distributed Replay Controller software component removed if it is unused.
Information systems are capable of providing a wide variety of functions and services. Some of the functions and services, provided by default or selected for installation by an administrator, may ...Rule Medium Severity -
SQL Server must have the Data Quality Client software component removed if it is unused.
Information systems are capable of providing a wide variety of functions and services. Some of the functions and services, provided by default or selected for installation by an administrator, may ...Rule Medium Severity -
SQL Server must have the Data Quality Services software component removed if it is unused.
Information systems are capable of providing a wide variety of functions and services. Some of the functions and services, provided by default or selected for installation by an administrator, may ...Rule Medium Severity -
SQL Server must have the Client Tools SDK software component removed if it is unused.
Information systems are capable of providing a wide variety of functions and services. Some of the functions and services, provided by default or selected for installation by an administrator, may ...Rule Medium Severity -
SQL Server must have the Management Tools software component removed if it is unused.
Information systems are capable of providing a wide variety of functions and services. Some of the functions and services, provided by default or selected for installation by an administrator, may ...Rule Medium Severity -
SQL Server must have the Filestream feature disabled if it is unused.
Information systems are capable of providing a wide variety of functions and services. Some of the functions and services, provided by default or selected for installation by an administrator, may ...Rule Medium Severity -
Unused database components that are integrated in SQL Server and cannot be uninstalled must be disabled.
SQL Server is capable of providing a wide variety of functions and services. Some of the functions and services, provided by default, may not be necessary to support essential organizational operat...Rule Medium Severity -
The SQL Server default account [sa] must be disabled.
SQL Server's [sa] account has special privileges required to administer the database. The [sa] account is a well-known SQL Server account and is likely to be targeted by attackers and thus more pro...Rule Medium Severity -
Access to xp_cmdshell must be disabled, unless specifically required and approved.
Information systems are capable of providing a wide variety of functions and services. Some of the functions and services, provided by default, may not be necessary to support essential organizatio...Rule Medium Severity -
SQL Server must be configured to prohibit or restrict the use of unauthorized network protocols.
Information systems are capable of providing a wide variety of functions and services. Some of the functions and services, provided by default, may not be necessary to support essential organizatio...Rule Medium Severity -
SQL Server must be configured to prohibit or restrict the use of unauthorized network ports.
Information systems are capable of providing a wide variety of functions and services. Some of the functions and services, provided by default, may not be necessary to support essential organizatio...Rule Medium Severity -
SQL Server must uniquely identify and authenticate organizational users (or processes acting on behalf of organizational users).
To ensure accountability and prevent unauthorized SQL Server access, organizational users shall be identified and authenticated. Organizational users include organizational employees and individua...Rule Medium Severity -
SQL Server must uniquely identify and authenticate non-organizational users (or processes acting on behalf of non-organizational users).
Non-organizational users include all information system users other than organizational users, which include organizational employees or individuals the organization deems to have equivalent status...Rule Medium Severity -
SQL Server must be configured to separate user functionality (including user interface services) from database management functionality.
Information system management functionality includes functions necessary to administer databases, network components, workstations, or servers and typically requires privileged user access. The s...Rule Medium Severity -
SQL Server must isolate security functions from nonsecurity functions.
An isolation boundary provides access control and protects the integrity of the hardware, software, and firmware that perform security functions. Security functions are defined as "the hardware, ...Rule Medium Severity -
Where SQL Server Audit is in use, SQL Server must generate audit records when unsuccessful attempts to retrieve privileges/permissions occur.
Under some circumstances, it may be useful to monitor who/what is reading privilege/permission/role information. Therefore, it must be possible to configure auditing to do this. DBMSs typically mak...Rule Medium Severity -
Where availability is paramount, the SQL Server must continue processing (preferably overwriting existing records, oldest first), in the event of lack of space for more Audit/Trace log records; and must keep processing after any failure of an Audit/Trace.
It is critical that when SQL Server is at risk of failing to process audit logs as required, it take action to mitigate the failure. Audit processing failures include: software/hardware errors; fai...Rule High Severity -
The role(s)/group(s) used to modify database structure (including but not necessarily limited to tables, indexes, storage, etc.) and logic modules (stored procedures, functions, triggers, links to software external to SQL Server, etc.) must be restricted to authorized users.
If SQL Server were to allow any user to make changes to database structure or logic, then those changes might be implemented without undergoing the appropriate testing and approvals that are part o...Rule Medium Severity -
SQL Server must use NIST FIPS 140-2 or 140-3 validated cryptographic modules for cryptographic operations.
Use of weak or not validated cryptographic algorithms undermines the purposes of utilizing encryption and digital signatures to protect data. Weak algorithms can be easily broken and not validated ...Rule High Severity -
SQL Server must automatically terminate a user session after organization-defined conditions or trigger events requiring session disconnect.
This addresses the termination of user-initiated logical sessions in contrast to the termination of network connections that are associated with communications sessions (i.e., network disconnect). ...Rule Medium Severity -
SQL Server must allocate audit record storage capacity in accordance with organization-defined audit record storage requirements.
In order to ensure sufficient storage capacity for the audit logs, SQL Server must be able to allocate audit record storage capacity. Although another requirement (SRG-APP-000515-DB-000318) mandate...Rule Medium Severity -
SQL Server must prohibit user installation of logic modules (stored procedures, functions, triggers, views, etc.) without explicit privileged status.
Allowing regular users to install software, without explicit privileges, creates the risk that untested or potentially malicious software will be installed on the system. Explicit privileges (escal...Rule Medium Severity -
SQL Server must implement and/or support cryptographic mechanisms preventing the unauthorized disclosure of organization-defined information at rest on organization-defined information system components.
DBMSs handling data requiring "data at rest" protections must employ cryptographic mechanisms to prevent unauthorized disclosure and modification of the information at rest. These cryptographic mec...Rule Medium Severity -
Software updates to SQL Server must be tested before being applied to production systems.
While it is important to apply SQL Server updates in a timely manner, it is also incumbent upon the database administrator and/or system administrator to ensure that their deployment will not inter...Rule Medium Severity -
SQL Server must produce Trace or Audit records when security objects are accessed.
Changes to the security configuration must be tracked. This requirement applies to situations where security data is retrieved or modified via data manipulation operations, as opposed to via SQL ...Rule Medium Severity -
SQL Server must generate Trace or Audit records when privileges/permissions are deleted.
Changes in the permissions, privileges, and roles granted to users and roles must be tracked. Without an audit trail, unauthorized elevation or restriction of privileges could go undetected. Elevat...Rule Medium Severity -
SQL Server must generate Trace or Audit records for all privileged activities or other system-level access.
Without tracking privileged activity, it would be difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events relating to an incident or identify those responsible for one. System documentation...Rule Medium Severity -
SQL Server must generate Trace or Audit records when concurrent logons/connections by the same user from different workstations occur.
For completeness of forensic analysis, it is necessary to track who logs on to SQL Server. Concurrent connections by the same user from multiple workstations may be valid use of the system; or suc...Rule Medium Severity -
SQL Server must off-load audit data to a separate log management facility; this must be continuous and in near real time for systems with a network connection to the storage facility and weekly or more often for stand-alone systems.
Information stored in one location is vulnerable to accidental or incidental deletion or alteration. Off-loading is a common process in information systems with limited audit storage capacity. T...Rule Medium Severity -
Applications must obscure feedback of authentication information during the authentication process to protect the information from possible exploitation/use by unauthorized individuals.
To prevent the compromise of authentication information, such as passwords and PINs, during the authentication process, the feedback from the information system must not provide any information tha...Rule High Severity -
SRG-APP-000099-DB-000043
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SRG-APP-000001-DB-000031
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SRG-APP-000119-DB-000060
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SRG-APP-000033-DB-000084
Group -
SQL Server must enforce approved authorizations for logical access to server-level system resources in accordance with applicable access control policies.
Authentication with a DoD-approved PKI certificate does not necessarily imply authorization to access the SQL Server instance and server-level resources. To mitigate the risk of unauthorized acces...Rule Medium Severity -
SRG-APP-000141-DB-000092
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SRG-APP-000090-DB-000065
Group
Node 2
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