I want to install an application (ASP.Net + SQL server 2005 express) in local network of some small company for demoing it for a period of time, but I also want nobody even sysadmin have no permission on this database and any permission granting wants a secure pass that I have .
I just want my tables structure and relations and functions be hidden and encrypting the data have no advantage
I need to spend more time on this article Database Encryption in SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition that i found from this answer is-it-possible-to-password-protect-an-sql-server-database
but
1.I like to be sure and more clear on this because the other answer in this page says :
Yes. you can protect it from everyone
except the administrators of the
server.
2.if this is possible, the db have to be enterprise edition ?
3.is there any other possible solutions and workaround for this?
4.if I install a new instance with my own sa password , can i restrict other instances admins from attaching the mdf to their own ?
thanks in advance
These people can access your server or the SQL Server instance no matter what you do
- anyone with physical access to the server
- domain admins of the network
- anyone with the sa password
- a windows group with local admin and/or sa rights (which implies group policy etc)
You have to host your server offsite if you want no-one to get to log onto it.
It is that simple
In SQL Server, you cannot "password-protect" a database - what you can do is limit the permissions a given user or role has in your database.
You can DENY anyone access to your database - but that's a bit odd, since no one will be able to use it....
You can do all sorts of stuff to your database tables and logins - but a sysadmin will always be able to get around those things and get access to the database. As long as the sysadmin can get his hands physically on the server, I don't think there's any way to totally shut them out.
If you don't trust even your sysadmins, you have bigger problems.....
There's several different ways you could solve this problem.
Host it offsite - I think the easiest solution would just be to host it offsite. There's loads of cheap shared hosting out there which you could use.
Lock out the sysadmins from that server. Assuming you have root access and only you use/need that server you could change the root password and any other passwords on the server.
Do what you're currently doing and try to make something secure even when someone who shouldn't have access has root access to the server. This way sounds tricky and insecure even at best.
I have a contribution for (3):
I'm guessing (I might be wrong) you don't actually have sensitive information in your database, you just want to make it unfeasible for someone in the local network to use any of your stuff.
If that's the case, you could just make it harder for them to read your data by encrypting the data in the database and having your (compiled) code decrypt it before using it.
This way, any sysadmin who is just curious about the data or wants to change his hiscore to 13371337 will not want to go through the trouble of decompiling your code and/or cracking your encryption (for the duration of your demo) and your (assumed) problem will be solved.
I have no idea if this helps you at all, I guess I just want to say you might want to take a look at your problem again. Since you can't keep the sysadmins away from your stuff, you may want to take a different approach like making it less useful to them.
As discussed by the various other posters, you can't password protect a database - deny permissions - to the sysadmin. One alternative that hasn't been discussed is hosting it on a Laptop. Since this is a demo, you can host the Database and ASP.Net site on a laptop and hook that up to their Network - after Sysadmin permission of course - and have the clients test the application from your laptop.
This will allow you to protect the database from Sysadmins and provide the added benefit that if you want to allow them to see the database you can let them use your laptop and you will be there watching their actions on your database. This last benefit is something that you can't do easily with a hosted solution.
The above answers point 3. As for point 2, you will need the Enterprise Edition of SQL Server to take advantage of Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) as per the comparison link on MSDN. If you click on the Enterprise Security link at the top it will show a table explaining the different security capabilities of the different SQL Server versions and it shows that TDE is only for the Enterprise Edition.
