I've Implemented Always Encryption method in my Project, after knowing that it encrypts's the data in Client Side Code and Never reveals the Data to DataBase Engine.
I've gone through here and here and got a Clear Idea that Encryption/Decryption is done in Client Level(Driver).
Also, I've already posted a Question on this site too and got the Same Answers.
Although, I've needed to prove it to my Officials that between the Database Call and Client Code the data's will be encrypted.They simply ignore the Documentation.
How should I've able to prove them that during the network between the client and SQL server the Data in Encrypted and not Decrypted?
I tried with Process monitor. But it does not seem to work, it listing all the process behind the Visual Studio Execution(mostly DLL Calls)
Can i use Fiddler to Monitor ?
You can use SQL profiler that can be accessed through SSMS.
You can find it in SSMS menu as Tools -> Sql Server Profiler.
With some google search, you can find resources on how to use it.
I would create two tables having the same schema. Encrypt a couple of columns of one of the tables using Always Encrypted.
Run select, insert and point lookup queries for each table. You will see that for table with Always Encrypted columns, you will see encrypted values being sent to SQL Server for the encrypted columns whereas for plaintext table all the values sent to the server will be in plain text.
SQL-Profiler is a good way to Prove the Data is Encrypted through-out the Network.I've tried with Fiddler as well as SQL Profile. Both Proved my data were encrypted through out the Channel between Client and SQL Server. I would like to Show Images on this. (May be helpful for others)
Fiddler (Client Network Traffic)
SQL-Profiler (Data's from Client to SQL Server as Encrypted)
Related
We use SQL Server, soon to be upgraded to the latest version of SQL Server, which I believe is SQL Server 2017. I'd like to be able to move some of our databases to the cloud, at least for development. Our company has instituted a lot of security protocols, and some (important) people in the company are uncomfortable with PII information or corporate information being on the cloud. Not that I blame them. I've read that SQL Server databases can be encrypted, and have read some of the documentation. This may be the solution to me being able to put some of our data in the cloud.
I can't get my head around how one could write a query against an encrypted database, without that database being at least temporarily decrypted. Would the fields referenced in queries or views be converted to encrypted values for the query to run? Or, is there some other way this is handled. I saw some stats on the overhead of TDS, and while it's not pretty, it may be doable. Could anyone explain in not quite layman's terms how this encryption is handled?
When you are doing a search against encrypted data, you would have to encrypt your search query in with the same algorithm the data was encrypted against. This eliminates the possibility for LIKE searches and for you to be able to show the data back in plain text however.
I can't get my head around how one could write a query against an encrypted database
There is difference if you encrypt the database or data.
Often the database itself can encrypt the database (such as MSSQL), or the hosting infrastructure can encrypt the data storage. In that case - the data themselves are stored encrypted, but the encryption is transparent to the authenticated clients (authenticated client will query the data as before, nothing changes). The key is managed by the infrastructure or database.
Another option is storing the data already encrypted by the client, e.g. encrypting only PII by the client app.
Storing all data already encrypted would make either data not searchable or you will need to use deterministic (semantically non-secure) encryption. This is what previous answer suggested. For this there's even a nice tool CryptDB which act as an encryption proxxy over database queries.
What is the best way to encrypt a SQL 2005 database?
I have found things about the with SQL 2008, and I've seen how to do column encryption in SQL 2005 - but it seems more difficult to access the table values then because you need to create a function or a view/stored procedure.
I also tried doing the file level security by using windows encryption (via a certificate) to encrypt the folder which held the database files, but then SQL Server Management Studio gave me errors on permissions (even after I gave it permissions).
I need to secure client data on our servers and I need to do it in a way that will not slow down our server too much, though I know it's inevitable due to the extra layer that encryption poses.
Am I missing something, or am I wrong? Please advise.
Upgrade to SQL Server 2008 and use Transparent Database Encryption. Unlike column level encryption of SQL Server 2005, the 2008 TDE is, as the name implies, transparent. Requires no application changes. Also, the data is searchable, something which is always desirable but very difficult to achieve with column encryption or with client side encryption.
File level encryption does not really work with SQL Server. However, BitLocker does work with SQL Server so encrypting the entire volume with BitLocker is another viable alternative.
If you don't want to slow down the server, you could encrypt and decrypt data on the fly using the client side to process it. Store data in the database in a serialized and/or encrypted fashion. There are many examples of this kind of thing on the net.
Create a wrapper for your data , like so :
Wrap(
Zip (
Base64 Encode (
Encrypt (
Serialize(
DATA
)
)
)
)
)
Then,
StoreInDB(
WrappedData
)
We are working on a licensing system for a client-server application where the only server component is a database (no application server). We would like to issue licenses to a particular server that cannot be installed on any other server or transferred via backup/restore. The idea is to generate a unqiue identifier via a T-SQL query and then use public/private signing to return an activation token that works only for that identifier.
Is there a way to uniquely identify a SQL Server, in a repeatable way, using only T-SQL (without a CLR stored proc or function)? For example, is there some retrievable, unique value that is created when the instance is installed?
Edit: Maybe the MAC part of NEWSEQUENTIALID() would work (see this method). If the system fails over in a cluster/failover setup, or if the primary LAN adapter is changed, it could enter a "grace period" during which it will continue to operate until re-activated on the new hardware. The question is whether this is "unique enough."
Even if you get a unique ID a potential problem is validation at T-SQL. The database is not validated. What if they hack the T-SQL and remove the activation part. Does the customer use T-SQL directly or do you have a client application. If you have a client application then why is CLR not an option. It was crack-able but I worked with an application that generated a hash of server name on the install and stored it in the database. Then the client would compare the stored hash to the dynamic hash to determine if it was on another server. Problem was if the server name was the same then it could be beat and the hash algorithm was on the client application so with effort it could be exposed.
Adian I wish I could thank you for answering my questions.
If you look in sysObjects and other systems tables/views I think you can find something to uniquely identify a server and database. Like on a restore to another server you have to delete the user and and recreate the user even though the name is the same the internal id is different. If they restored the master and application database they might be able to make everything identical but they would have to know to do that. On the base install SQL may generate a unique id somewhere as it makes sense Microsoft would want a unique id for replication, other features, and licensing.
I’m distributing an SQL 2008 database with my c# application (only the data, which I restore in the client’s local SQL server).
Is there a way to assure that the client can only access my data by using my application? (and not, for instance, using Management Studio, SQLCMD, etc)
Thanks, Nestor
Yet another form of the same ethernal quesiton that comes up about SQL Encryption... see Who needs encryption? at the DRM section:
"I would like to package my database
application in a form that would allow
a customer to use it, but without him
ever being capable to access the
actual data stored in it. I think
encrypting the database should help".
The answer is always the same: what you ask for is DRM, not encryption, and SQL Server does not offer any DRM solution. If you your application can access the data, so can the user from any tool of his choice. You are wasting your time trying to find a solution based on SQL encryption and all the claims to the contrary are snake oil. All 'solutions' will have a key management fault that will allow an administrator to retrieve the decryption key, always.
I don't want customers to be able to make backups of my sql server database and access the tables data etc.
I know there are some products that will encrypt the data in the tables, and their product will decrypt it when displaying in my application.
What products do you guys know of? What options do I have?
(This is a business requirement, however silly it might seem to some hehe).
Update
This is for sql server 2008 express
The problem with encrypting data inside the database is that as long as the database lives on the client's machine (as you indicated, they're running SQL 2008 Express, so I'm betting it lives on the client's desktops or laptops) then they can get into the data. They can set up security on the instance so that they have SA privileges, and from there, they can get the data, period. There's no way around that.
What you have to do is encrypt the data before it hits the database: encrypt it in your application. Inside the app, encrypt the data that you want to store in each sensitive field. As another poster indicated, you don't want to encrypt ID fields because those are used for indexing.
There is the 3rd party xp_crypt. It's been around for years.
It's an extended stored proc (that is, DLL)
SQL Server 2008 supports database encryption natively. Check the documentation for Transparent Data Encryption (TDE).
You can encrypt stored procedures, which can protect your logic.
TDE is available only Enterprise edition.
I can't find if it supports native sql encryption - but you could find this out with a little searching. But if it did you could probably set the database master key with your application and keep all of the decryption/encryption code in your application.
If it doesn't support native encryption, you might want to creat/find your own encryption functions in your application language and lock away the keys in your code.
Transparent Data Encryption will encrypt the database on disk, but is unencrypted in memory, so appropriate security would also be necessary to ensure unauthorised users cannot access the table. As it's an Enterprise-only feature, you can safely move away from it.
SQL Server 2005 and above have built-in encryption features - have a look at Books Online, and especially Chapter 5 - Encryption of Adam Machanic's Expert SQL Server 2005 Development book (technically, Lara Rubbelke wrote chapter 5 though).
Note that you'll only want to encrypt some columns - those that you'll never try to look up, as encrypted columns are pretty much useless for indexing. Adam Machanic's book suggests ways to solve this problem.
Another solution for transparent SQL Server encryption is DbDefence
Free for databases less than 77 MBs.