SQL6-D0-017500 - Allow Polybase Export feature must be disabled, unless specifically required and approved.

Information

Information systems are capable of providing a wide variety of functions and services. Some of the functions and services, provided by default, may not be necessary to support essential organizational operations (e.g., key missions, functions).

It is detrimental for applications to provide, or install by default, functionality exceeding requirements or mission objectives.

Applications must adhere to the principles of least functionality by providing only essential capabilities.

SQL Server may spawn additional external processes to execute procedures that are defined in the SQL Server but stored in external host files (external procedures). The spawned process used to execute the external procedure may operate within a different OS security context than SQL Server and provide unauthorized access to the host system.

SQL Server is capable of providing a wide range of features and services. Some of the features and services, provided by default, may not be necessary, and enabling them could adversely affect the security of the system.

The Allow Polybase Export feature allows an export of data to an external data source such as Hadoop File System or Azure Data Lake. An exploit to the SQL Server instance could result in a compromise of the host system and external SQL Server resources.

NOTE: Nessus has provided the target output to assist in reviewing the benchmark to ensure target compliance.

Solution

Disable use of or remove any external application executable object definitions that are not authorized. To disable the use of 'Allow Polybase Export' option, from the query prompt:

sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1;
GO
RECONFIGURE;
GO
sp_configure 'allow polybase export', 0;
GO
RECONFIGURE;
GO

See Also

https://dl.dod.cyber.mil/wp-content/uploads/stigs/zip/U_MS_SQL_Server_2016_Y24M07_STIG.zip

Item Details

Category: CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT

References: 800-53|CM-7a., CAT|II, CCI|CCI-000381, Rule-ID|SV-214039r960963_rule, STIG-ID|SQL6-D0-017500, STIG-Legacy|SV-94049, STIG-Legacy|V-79343, Vuln-ID|V-214039

Plugin: MS_SQLDB

Control ID: 4ca5db9fc013c82897426bcbff69565424573311e633ff63c6d63ba4c9fbbadb