DoD DISA SQL Server 2012 STIGs

The american (USA) Department of Defence (DoD) has released some Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIGs) for Microsoft SQL Server 2012.
There are two principal documents:

• "Microsoft SQL Server Database Instance Security Technical Implementation Guide"
• "Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Database Security Technical Implementation Guide"

Also DISA has composed a general "Database Security Requirements Guide", that can be used across database managers and versions.
In general the documents are a collection of discussions about issues like:

1. Least Privilege.
2. Separation of Duties (SoD).
3. Least Service.
4. Role Based Access Control (RBAC).
5. Security Classification.

Least Privilege

In the STIG Least Privilege is refered to as a concept, where other places it is refered to as a principle. I will not discuss the difference here as it might take this text off course.
This principle sounds simple and easy to implement, but if you really asks the same question to every acces or right it is really complicated to construct a solution that implements this principle to the core.
If you are expected to implement a system build with a framework like SharePoint or Entity Framework, it might be rather difficult - like "impossible" -  to figure out the really needed privileges.
A good sub-principle is to avoid the builtin server roles and database roles in SQL Server. This forces everybody to define the actual privilege.

Seperation of Duties

As a DBA in a financial organisation this is a very important. Not only to comply with formal rules but also to ensure a robust installation. This concept (principle?) is very often tightly integrated with Role Based Access Control in the construction and implementation.

Least Service

To contribute to at stable and secure installation it is a good idea only to install the needed services. Other nice-to-have services increases the risk of security holes and also increases the need for upgrades. Such upgrades might reduce the service availability while restarting og likewise stopping the installation.

Role Based Access Control

To ensure Seperation of Duties and meet audit requirements it is usually expected that the Security Plan is based on Role Based Access Control. Mostly the roles are business functional roles, but they can also be based on duties in a system.
There is a lot of litteratur on this complex subject. If you are expected to enforce this principle I think you should spend some time on the theories behind.
Also there is a huge administrative benefit of using Role Based Access Control, in common opposition to individual user access and rights.
If you are asked to give a user "the same rights as <existing user>" this is a worring and sure sign of no security plan and no us of Role Based Access Control. Such a request could make the day very long rather suddenly.
The subject of Role Based Access Control easily leads to the subject of Discretionary Access Control (DAC), that also is refered to several times in the documents. This is important when setting a policy of ownership.
Enforcing Role Based Access Control is not only implementing functional roles, but also to handle the faces of SQL Server that might break this principle if handled without proper awareness. A classical situation is the database owner, where you might have a database owned by a subject that should have limited rights on some object in the database.

Security Classification

This issue is mentioned in several of the documents, sometimes as security labels on the data.
Such a rule is very usefull to implement especially when dealing with sensitive data. But it requires the organisation to define both the sensitive data and the security levels shown by the labels. These defnintions must be precise and unique enough to be implemented.

History

2014-01-19 Blog post created.
2017-05-29 Link for DISA database STIGs updated.