5 SQL Server Security Roles You Need to Know
Three SQL Server security roles, the db_owner, db_datareader, and db_ddladmin roles, are special and each has their own specific purpose and job to do in keeping your database secure. This article will tell you what those three roles are, what they can do, and when you should use them to keep your database safe.
Full Access
SQL server roles allow a level of restricted access across the server that can’t be replicated with just Windows permissions. There are five specific SQL server security roles you need to know about: db_owner, dbcreator, securityadmin, secadm_role and sysadmin.
##db_owner (six sentences)
This is the highest level of access, but you don’t want it because anyone who takes on this role has full privileges across all databases on the instance. It should only be given out in emergencies when needed to repair or rebuild a database.
The db_owner role allows unrestricted access and grants rights that are independent of other server-level privileges and restrictions. That’s why you don’t want this role for daily operations. Db_creator does not have ownership of any database, but does have full control over creation and use of any new databases. Securityadmin is granted more authority than regular admin users and may add users, assign server roles, edit logins and revoke them as well as change service accounts password from those set by the OS.
Secadm_role is a special one which doesn’t require membership in sysadmin group for some administrative tasks such as managing mail profiles for administrators in addition to tasks that require administration such as resetting passwords for secadminserverservice account. Sysadmin is granted extensive privileges including managing CPU resources allocated among concurrent sessions among many others that we’ll get into later odisha discom.
Change Data Capture
Change Data Capture was introduced in SQL Server 2012, and it’s a very valuable tool. Basically, it captures all of the data changes that happen on your production database, so you can test those changes and revert them if they break anything without affecting your live data. The time interval for capturing changes is configurable. In fact, there are two types of change data capture: Full CCDC stores all changes made to your tables and indexes, while Incremental CCDC only captures rows with changed columns. Lightweight CCDC simply captures just log records.
In each case, the changes are captured as SQL Server transaction logs which must be loaded into a target table using CDC Control (included with SSMS).
This is great when implementing new features or enhancements to existing code, because if something goes wrong you have an audit trail of what happened.
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Operator
The operators are just some of the most essential security roles that exist in SQL Server. They have been covered in this blog post to help you understand how important they are and what it means for you if you were granted access. As an operator, there are three levels of functionality that you can attain: Read Only Operator, Insert Operator, and Delete Operator. It is important to note that these three types of operations are performed at a database level or schema level depending on your chosen type of operation.
For example, if you choose to insert data into a table within a specific database then you will be inserting data as an insert operator but if you want to delete data from another table within the same database then you would be performing as a delete operator.
Bulk Administrators
You can be the only person in your company who has access to your database. In that case, you’re the DBA and everyone else is a user, but you might not be able to do everything without having other people’s permissions. That’s where Bulk Administrators come in. When I’m installing a new instance of SQL Server and adding my first administrator account, I usually set up two separate accounts: one for myself as the DBA, and one as a Bulk Administrator account. The Bulk Administrator role gives you many privileges over things like backups, restores, users and groups.
You’ll also have permission to create logins and passwords outside of an individual database. What’s more, this admin account can act on behalf of other users if they have been granted access by the owner. They may seem similar to sysadmins in MySQL or PostgreSQL – those systems give this privilege through superuser rights instead – but Microsoft does it with a specific SQL Server administrative account. If you find yourself using this often, consider assigning them their own login so they don’t need to impersonate others or take away from their own security restrictions (like allowing themselves access).
5) Application Role
Application roles in SQL server security are roles granted privileges to specific database objects. Application roles are also known as application-defined or built-in application roles. These servers provide built-in application roles that can be assigned directly, without needing any additional permissions in the database. Here is a list of all of the defined roles: DBA – Management access to all database objects.
SA – Provides data manipulation rights on most database objects, except those related to backup and restore operations and data definition language (DDL) triggers.
SQL_USER – User who connects using SQL authentication and cannot manage other users or roles
SQL_CLIENT – Client who connects using Windows authentication and cannot manage other users or roles
SQL_RESERVE_UNIT – For testing purposes only
SQL_ADMINISTRATOR – Allows a user to perform administrative tasks such as creating new databases, managing performance statistics and managing quotas
