Securing SQL Server: DBAs Defending the Database

© Peter A. Carter 2018

Peter A. CarterSecuring SQL Serverhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-4161-5_11

11. Hijacking an Instance

Peter A. Carter¹ 

(1)

London, UK

 

In earlier versions of SQL Server, the BUILTIN\ADMINISTRATORS group was added to the sysadmin role by default. This meant that the default behavior of SQL Server was to allow anybody with local administrator permissions to the server on which SQL Server was installed the ability to do anything within the instance. This posed two issues: first, the lack of separation of duties. Skilled Windows administrators are not necessarily experienced DBAs, and even if they are, they should not have administrative control of SQL Server, unless they have the responsibility of managing SQL Server instances. ...