Trace or Audit records must be generated when categorized information (e.g., classification levels/security levels) is accessed.
An XCCDF Rule
Description
<VulnDiscussion>Changes in categorized information must be tracked. Without an audit trail, unauthorized access to protected data could go undetected. For detailed information on categorizing information, refer to FIPS Publication 199, Standards for Security Categorization of Federal Information and Information Systems, and FIPS Publication 200, Minimum Security Requirements for Federal Information and Information Systems. Use of SQL Server Audit is recommended. All features of SQL Server Audit are available in the Enterprise and Developer editions of SQL Server 2014. It is not available at the database level in other editions. For this or legacy reasons, the instance may be using SQL Server Trace for auditing, which remains an acceptable solution for the time being. Note, however, that Microsoft intends to remove most aspects of Trace at some point after SQL Server 2016. Note also that Trace does not support auditing of SELECT statements, whereas Audit does. Since Trace does not provide for tracking SELECT statements, it is necessary to provide this tracking at the application level, if Trace is used for audit purposes.</VulnDiscussion><FalsePositives></FalsePositives><FalseNegatives></FalseNegatives><Documentable>false</Documentable><Mitigations></Mitigations><SeverityOverrideGuidance></SeverityOverrideGuidance><PotentialImpacts></PotentialImpacts><ThirdPartyTools></ThirdPartyTools><MitigationControl></MitigationControl><Responsibility></Responsibility><IAControls></IAControls>
- ID
- SV-81903r2_rule
- Severity
- Medium
- References
- Updated
Remediation - Manual Procedure
Where SQL Server Trace is in use, implement tracking of SELECTs on categorized data at the application level, using the system stored procedure sp_trace_generateevent to write the tracking records to the Trace used for audit purposes.
If SQL Server Audit is in use, design and deploy an Audit that captures all auditable events and data items. The script provided in the supplemental file Audit.sql can be used as the basis for this. Supplement the standard audit data as necessary, using Extended Events and/or triggers.
Alternatively, to add the necessary data capture to an existing server audit specification, run the script:
USE [master];