I m bit new to this field of DBA i wanted to know is there any codes available to encrypt the entire database as we have a huge database maintained in sqlserver 2005 .
I know that it is not safe to encrypt the entire database but we ha such kind of requirement moreover the in the application end they don't want to encrypt it.
i want the process to be as the data comes through the application end into the database it should be encrypted and stored and while retrieving the data it must be decrypted with a certificate/key as provided and shown. I don't want to use any 3rd party tools as it has been instructed.
i searched through the net and found that we can encrypt columns and stored procedure through asymmetric/symmetric key but i need to encrypt the entire database(selected tables is also ok) can you all help me in that.
I don't think there is an easy way to do it in 2005, you would need to redefine all (or most) of your tables to take encrypted data (varbinary) and then you'd lose the ability to do searches and comparisions and a whole heap of other stuff.
For 2008 there is Transparent Data(base) Encryption, which encrypts at the file level (when SQL server writes data) no changes required to your applications.
Search for SQL Server TDE and have a look around.
Related
GDPR is causing some headaches in this office. We already have a database table in production, lets call it personal_data, that now requires some columns to be encrypted. We are using SQL Server 2012. I've read that columns can be encrypted and decrypted with a symmetric key stored in the database.
We have dozens of existing queries, stored procedures and views that join to this table, so we'd like to avoid changing them if possible.
Is it possible to encrypt the necessary existing columns and query them without modifying these existing queries?
My thought was that if we renamed the personal_data table to something else, then created a view called personal_data, that queried the personal_data table columns and handled the decryption there, so everything that referenced 'personal_data' would still work as before. But if this is possible, what are the pitfalls with this solution?
I would suggest creating another table, say _personal_data. Encrypt the data in that table and replace the current table with a view on the table that returns acceptable columns.
You can give everyone access to the view, while restricting access to the underlying table.
This is a reasonable interim approach. For GDPR and other privacy initiatives, I prefer stronger restrictions, with personal data being in an entirely separate database -- because that is easier to control access to and to log accesses.
SQL Server 2005 enables developers to encrypt and decrypt sensitive data using EncryptByKey and DecryptByKey functions
You can find a sample case illustrated at SQL Server Database Encryption
But this requires code update for INSERT, UPDATE and READ statements
For example,
SELECT
CONVERT(nvarchar, DecryptByKey(EncryptedData)) AS 'DecryptedData'
FROM myTable;
Instead of direct read as
SELECT EncryptedData AS 'DecryptedData' FROM myTable;
Another encryption method is SQL Server Transparent Data Encryption aka TDE. Once you enable it, you don't need to make any code changes to write and read data. But this is a protection for securing disk files at all not for specific data fields. And once you connect database with a valid connection all data is transparent to you.
This looks a very nice feature, but what I understood its that only the app can see the unencrypted text of the columns, right?
Is it possible that the admin with a SQL query can see the unencrypted data? or does it have to be always from the app?
If yes, can you post a small query to show this
The answer is NO you cannot see encrypted data even if you are the data admin. The admin should not have access to Column Master Key (certificate). You can access it from a client machine that has certificate installed using SSMS or .Net application. Please check the MSDN blog
The new security layer addresses that vulnerability by keeping the
data encrypted even during transactions and computations, and by only
giving the client keys to decrypt it. That means that if anyone else,
including a database or system administrator, tries to access that
client’s database, the credit card information or other sensitive data
would just look like gibberish.
If you are an admin/DBA you can access plaintext data, if you have access to the column master key. To select and decrypt data, you can use any version of SSMS that supports Always Encrypted. Starting with SSMS 17.0, you can also insert, update, and filter by encrypted columns. For more details, please see:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt757096.aspx#Anchor_1
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlsecurity/2016/12/13/parameterization-for-always-encrypted-using-ssms-to-insert-into-update-and-filter-by-encrypted-columns/
I've been looking for finding the best solution to store highly sensitive information like an Amount or a balance in a banking application. Can I store that just as a numeric field or Do I need any encryption to encrypt that data? Am a bit worried about encryptions since these fields are frequently being accessed by the users. So when ever it gets accessed there needs to be some decryption mecahnism and to store back the new balance amount that again needs some encryption.
Or is there is a better solution for that.
Database is SQL Server 2008 R2 and the platform is .NET 4.0
This is an important topic to think about, there are lots of ways to do it.
However encryption in the best possible way when we have confidential data and to save things from Hackers you should surely encrypt it.
Take a look at this
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms179331.aspx
and this
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms174361.aspx
You should not need to store the data in an encrypted manner.
When it comes to security of data you should always work on preventing access via firewalls and correct login protocols.
Also only allows users to access data for which they have clearance.
When it comes to encryption - you could encrypt the disk but encrypting columns is not really worth the access time it will take in decrypting the data and if someone has access to the database invariably they will have access to the decryption routines.
I have been asked to produce a system that is the middle point in a bunch of systems that handles payments to a small group or people. For it I will be required to store the peoples bank details.
What is a good way of encrypting this data to be stored within the database and then decrypt the data when required to pass onto the next system?
For this project I need to use Microsoft SQL Server.
If you're using SQL Server 2008 the you can use the built in transparent data encryption (TDE). Check out and see if it fits the bill.
I encrypt the values at application level along with an encryption key, and then pass this encrypted value to SQL Server.
When decrypting I pass the encrypted values to the application, and decrypt before using them within the application.
I prefer this method as it keeps the encryption method seperate from SQL Server.
Otherwise, if a user was to hack into your SQL Server, including your encrypted values, and you were using a T-SQL User Defined Function, they would have the ability to decrypt the values, making the encryption worthless.
We've started using SQL Server 2005 Express for a project and I noticed that every database has it's own MDF/LDF files. Whenever we need to duplicate our database (to another SQL Server) we simply copy these files and then attach them to the database.
However, this has me wondering about the security of these files. If somebody from the outside gets a copy of them are they encrypted or can they simply attach to them like I'm doing? I'm not prompted for any passwords when I copy/attach them myself so I'm a bit nervous.
Thanks,
John
They are not encrypted and can be loaded/attached by any person with read access to the MDF/LDF files.
There are a couple of approaches you can take if the actual MDF files need to be protected. (This assumes that merely using file permissions to lock down access isn't feasible, for example if you need to protect against users with Administrative rights to the machine or direct HDD access.)
Use EFS or BitLocker or similar to encrypt the files themselves. This won't protect against other applications in the same session/context accessing the files, but it will protect against other accounts accessing the files (EFS) or someone stealing a laptop/hard drive (EFS/BitLocker).
Encrypt the sensitive data within the database itself. You will obviously want to store the encryption key separately (possibly using DPAPI to protect it, for example). SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition introduces a feature called Transparent Database Encryption (TDE) to make this process easier, which obviously doesn't help much for 2005 or Express Edition, unfortunately. Your best option in this case might be to do custom encryption of sensitive data in your app. (Unfortunately in 2005 this will require either using varbinary fields or Base64-encoding encrypted values etc.)
Don't store the data locally in the first place (i.e. use a remote SQL Server rather than a local Express instance). That doesn't truly solve the problem, but it reduces it (you only need to protect the remote instance rather than N local/express copies).