Download Effective Database Security Database Top 10 Threats

Top 10 Database Security Threats and
How to Stop Them
Rob Rachwald
Director of Security Strategy
Imperva Confidential
Data Has Value
Data Has Value
Top 7 Attacks Discussed in Hacker
Forums
11%
12%
12%
9%
21%
20%
15%
dos/ddos
SQL injection
spam
brute-force
shell code
zero-day
html injection
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Sources of a Data Breach
Malicious
Insider
33%
Hacker
29%
Non
malicious
38%
Source: 2010 Securosis-Imperva survey of more than 1100 U.S.
and multinational IT security practitioners.
https://www.imperva.com/ld/data_security_survey.asp?
Agenda
Top 10 Database
Security Threats
• Definition
• Analysis
• Consequence
• Mitigation
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Excessive Privilege Abuse
CONFIDENTIAL
Database Top 10 Threats
Excessive Privilege Abuse
Definition
• Users (or applications) granted
database access privileges in
excess of “business need-to-know”
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Database Top 10 Threats
Excessive Privilege Abuse
Analysis
• Hard to obtain a true list of
required privileges
• Database ACL semantics are
too limited
Consequence
• Any “minor” breach becomes
a major incident!
• See SQL Injection
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Database Top 10 Threats
Excessive Privilege Abuse
Mitigation
•More granular ACLs: Query ACLs
•What queries are allowed against the table by
this user
•Automatic and Dynamic ACL profiling
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Mitigation
Query Access Control Lists
Data Leakage
via Database Access
select * from classes where class_id = ?
Normal
Usage
• select * from classes
where class_id = 101
Privilege
Abuse
• select username,
password from students
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Mitigation
Query Access Control Lists
Data Leakage
via Web Application
select * from students where username = ?
and password = ?
Normal
Usage
• Select * from users
where username = ‘john’
and password = ‘smith’
Privilege
Abuse
• Select * from users
where username = ‘john’
and password = ‘smith’
or 1=1
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Legitimate Privilege Abuse
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CONFIDENTIAL
Database Top 10 Threats
Legitimate Privilege Abuse
Definition
• Abuse legitimate db privileges
for unauthorized purposes
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Database Top 10 Threats
Legitimate Privilege Abuse
Analysis
Consequence
• Use simple and available desktop
tools
• Retrieve large quantities of data
• Store sensitive data locally
• Make unauthorized changes
• Data theft
• Data loss
• Embezzlement
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Database Top 10 Threats
Legitimate Privilege Abuse
Mitigation
• More granular ACL: Context based ACL
• ACL augmented with the context of query
E.g. Client machine, client software, time-ofday
Privilege Elevation
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CONFIDENTIAL
Database Top 10 Threats
Privilege Elevation
Definition
• Low privileged user exploits
database vulnerabilities to gain
administrative privileges.
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Database Top 10 Threats
Privilege Elevation
Part 1
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Database Top 10 Threats
Privilege Elevation
Part 2
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Database Top 10 Threats
Privilege Elevation
Part 3
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Database Top 10 Threats
Privilege Elevation
Part 4
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Database Top 10 Threats
Privilege Elevation
Part 5
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Database Top 10 Threats
Privilege Elevation
Analysis
Consequence
• Susceptible objects
• Stored procedures and built-in
functions
• SQL Statements
• Types of vulnerabilities
• Buffer overflow
• SQL Injection
• Any “minor” breach becomes a
major incident
• Built-in access control becomes
ineffective
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Database Top 10 Threats
Privilege Elevation
Mitigation
• More granular ACL: Query level ACLs
• Automatic and dynamic ACL profiling
• Monitoring access to vulnerable objects
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Weak Audit
« In God I trust. For
everyone else, I keep
log files. »
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CONFIDENTIAL
Database Top 10 Threats
Weak Audit
Definition
• Audit policies that rely on built-in
database mechanisms suffer a
number of weaknesses
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Database Top 10 Threats
Weak Audit
Performance degradation
and DBA attention span
Knowing what matters in
the mountain of audit data
Limited Granularity
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Database Top 10 Threats
Weak Audit
Proprietary
Vulnerable to database
attacks
No End to End UserTracking
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Database Top 10 Threats
Weak Audit
No End-to-End User Tracking
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Database Top 10 Threats
Weak Audit
Consequence
Mitigation
• Regulatory problems
• Data is not there when you
need it
• Independent audit device
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SQL Injection
CONFIDENTIAL
Database Top 10 Threats
SQL Injection
Definition
• Attacker inserts an unauthorized
SQL statement through a SQL data
channel
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Database Top 10 Threats
SQL Injection
Analysis
Consequence
• Caused by non-validated
input parameters
• Access to unauthorized data
• Unauthorized data
manipulation
• Denial of service
• Privilege elevation
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Database Top 10 Threats
SQL Injection
Mitigation
• More granular ACL: Query level ACLs
• Automatic and dynamic ACL profiling
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Unauthorized Copies of Sensitive Data
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CONFIDENTIAL
Database Top 10 Threats
Unauthorized Copies of Sensitive Data
Definition
• Sensitive data copied to new
databases without any individual
held responsible
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Database Top 10 Threats
Unauthorized Copies of Sensitive Data
Analysis
Consequence
• Databases created without
knowledge of security team
• Correct security controls not
applied
• Sensitive data “Out-of-Scope”
of assessment
• Illegal access of data
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Database Top 10 Threats
Unauthorized Copies of Sensitive Data
Mitigation
 Data Discovery
 Data Classification
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Exploitation of Vulnerable, Mis-Configured
Databases
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CONFIDENTIAL
Database Top 10 Threats
Exploitation of Vulnerable, Mis-configured Databases
Definition
• Vulnerable and unpatched
databases, and databases with
default accounts and
configuration parameters which
allow unauthorized access
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Database Top 10 Threats
Exploitation of Vulnerable, Mis-configured Databases
Analysis
• Lengthy database patching process
• Default accounts and configuration
parameters
• Weak account names and/ or
passwords
• Weakened audit parameters
Consequence
• Access to unauthorized data
• Unauthorized data manipulation
• Privilege elevation
• Credential theft
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Database Top 10 Threats
Exploitation of Vulnerable, Mis-configured Databases
Mitigation
• Database assessment
• Configuration assessment
• Virtual patching
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Denial of Service
CONFIDENTIAL
Database Top 10 Threats
Denial of Service
Definition
• Attacks that affect the availability of
information from the database to users
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Database Top 10 Threats
Denial of Service
Analysis
Consequence
• Specific vulnerabilities
• Resource oriented attacks
• Critical for modern day
organizations
• Paralyzing the entire operation
of an organization or part of it
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Database Top 10 Threats
Denial of Service
Mitigation
• Specific mechanisms for specific vulnerabilities
• Resource control mechanisms
•Timing responses
•Sizing responses
•Connection Control
• Problem detection
•Timing latency in system
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Database Communication Protocol Vulnerabilities
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CONFIDENTIAL
Database Top 10 Threats
Database Communication Protocol Vulnerabilities
Definition
• Tampering with db related
network protocol messages
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Database Top 10 Threats
Database Communication Protocol Vulnerabilities
Analysis
• Proprietary network protocols to
communicate data and commands
• Complex (and mostly obscure)
protocols are prone to security
vulnerabilities
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Database Top 10 Threats
Database Communication Protocol Vulnerabilities
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Field Size = 255
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34
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28
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65
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51
Database Top 10 Threats
Database Communication Protocol Vulnerabilities
52
Database Top 10 Threats
Database Communication Protocol Vulnerabilities
Consequence
• Unauthorized data access
• Unauthorized data manipulation
• Denial of service
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Database Top 10 Threats
Database Communication Protocol Vulnerabilities
Mitigation
•Protocol validation engine (addresses even unknown
vulnerabilities)
•Reactive protocol validation (addresses known
vulnerabilities)
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Backup Data Exposure
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CONFIDENTIAL
Database Top 10 Threats
Backup Data Exposure
Definition
• Unencrypted data on Backup Tapes and Disk
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Database Top 10 Threats
Backup Data Exposure
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Database Top 10 Threats
Backup Data Exposure
Analysis
• Many recent incidents where
backup media is lost or stolen
Consequence
• Exposure of huge amounts of
sensitive information
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Database Top 10 Threats
Backup Data Exposure
Mitigation
•End to end encryption
•Disk encryption
•Database encryption
•A better solution is yet to be found!
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Database Top 10 Threats
Summary
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Confidential
Question & Answer
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