SQL2-00-005200 - SQL Server must not grant users direct access to the Alter trace permission.

Information

The concept of least privilege must be applied to SQL Server processes, ensuring that the processes operate at privilege levels no higher than necessary to accomplish required organizational missions and/or functions. Organizations consider the creation of additional processes, roles, and SQL Server accounts as necessary to achieve least privilege. Organizations also apply least privilege concepts to the design, development, implementation, and operations of SQL Server and the OS.

Unauthorized access to sensitive data or SQL Server control may compromise the confidentiality of personnel privacy, threaten national security, compromise a variety of other sensitive operations or lead to a loss of system control. Access controls are best managed by defining requirements based on distinct job functions and assigning access based on the job function assigned to the individual user.

Privileges granted outside of SQL Server's role-based account assignments are more likely to go unmanaged and without oversight of granted access. Maintenance of privileges using roles defined for discrete job functions offers improved oversight of application user privilege assignments and helps to protect against unauthorized privilege assignment.

SQL Server's 'Alter trace' permission is a high server-level privilege that must only be granted to individual administration accounts through roles. This administrative privilege must not be assigned directly to administrative user accounts (or any other user accounts). If any user accounts have direct access to administrative privileges, this access must be removed.

Note that this does not apply to logins with names of the form '##MS...##'. These accounts are internal-use system principals provisioned by the DBMS, and required by it for specific purposes.

Solution

Remove the 'Alter trace' permission access from the account that has direct access by running the following script:


USE master

REVOKE ALTER TRACE TO <'account name'>

GO

See Also

https://dl.dod.cyber.mil/wp-content/uploads/stigs/zip/U_MS_SQL_Server_2012_V1R20_STIG.zip

Item Details

Category: ACCESS CONTROL

References: 800-53|AC-3(3), CAT|II, CCI|CCI-003014, Rule-ID|SV-53756r4_rule, STIG-ID|SQL2-00-005200, Vuln-ID|V-41274

Plugin: MS_SQLDB

Control ID: fb2b0e9230249dd4469ecb13183f86bdd047687f4c11ae27c3db06a4705fa874