Product Reviews
AppDetective for SQL Server
Exposing holes in your SQL security
AppDetective is a new security auditing tool that actually covers a variety
of servers, including Oracle and Lotus Domino as well as SQL Server, with
more editions planned for the future. I took a look at the SQL Server
version, testing it with some SQL Server databases on my network—one
"out of the box" and one that I thought was pretty well up to date.
Using AppDetective is a three-step process. First, you scan your network,
looking for servers using the target software. Second, you can run "Pen
Tests" against any server. A Pen Test (or penetration test) is a test
that doesn't use any special knowledge about the server; it just looks
for problems that can be found from outside. Third, you can run audits,
which require a valid login for the server. An audit can check for problems
such as easy-to-crack passwords and buffer overflows.
Well, it turns out that even my "up to date" server had problems—there's
a Microsoft hot fix that I'd missed installing. And the out of the box
server was, of course, a security disaster waiting to happen. AppDetective
made short work of even comprehensive scans against these servers, coming
back with results in a matter of minutes.
You can download a functioning evaluation copy from the Application Security
web site. If you choose to purchase, you also get access to periodic updates
so that it can continue to monitor your network for the latest vulnerabilities.
About the Author
Mike Gunderloy, MCSE, MCSD, MCDBA, is a former MCP columnist and the author of numerous development books.