RDBMS Security

Table of Contents

In relational database management systems (RDBMS), a comprehensive approach to security is crucial.

This involves various measures and tools to ensure data confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

Here’s a breakdown of key elements:

1. Security

Authentication: verifies user identities and grants access based on credentials. Common methods include passwords, tokens, and biometrics.
Authorization: defines which users have access to specific data and operations. This is typically controlled by privileges and roles.
Encryption: scrambles data in transit and at rest to prevent unauthorized access.
Auditing: tracks user activity and system events for monitoring and accountability. This helps identify suspicious activity and diagnose potential security issues.

Roles are collections of privileges assigned to users. This offers several advantages:

Simplifies access control: Instead of granting individual privileges, roles allow centralized and efficient management.
Improves consistency: Users with similar responsibilities can be granted consistent access levels through roles.
Enhances security: Reduces the risk of errors and unauthorized access by clearly defining user permissions.

Privileges are fine-grained access controls that define the specific operations a user can perform on data objects. Each privilege grants permission to specific actions like reading, writing, deleting, or updating data.
Managing privileges involves assigning them to users or roles. This ensures precise control over user access and prevents unauthorized modifications or data misuse.

Profiles are collections of settings that personalize the user’s environment and control various aspects, including:

Resource limits: setting limits on CPU, memory, and disk space usage for each user.
Default settings: defining default schema, character set, and language for individual users.
Security options: specifying password complexity requirements, session timeout, and idle time limitations.

This model determines the security context under which database objects (e.g., stored procedures) are executed.

There are two main types:

Definer’s rights: The object owner’s privileges are used during execution, regardless of the user who invoked it. This ensures consistent behavior and avoids unexpected privilege escalations.
Invoker’s rights: The privileges of the user who invoked the object are used during execution. This offers more flexibility but requires careful consideration of potential security risks.