Databases Ripe for Attacks

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://security.ziffdavis.com/article2/0,3973,1007384,00.asp

By Lisa Vaas
eWEEK 
April 7, 2003 

The SQL Slammer worm played a major role in a recently reported spike
in security incidents during the first three months of 2003.  The
report, put out by security firm Internet Security Systems Inc., found
an 84 percent jump in reported security incidents and confirmed
attacks from the fourth quarter of 2002 to the first quarter of 2003.

Pete Allor, manager of the company's ISS X-Force Threat Intelligence
Services, said that Slammer - which in late January preyed upon
servers running Microsoft Corp.'s SQL Server 2000 database - was a
"huge part"  of the substantial increase in security reports. Allor
said that in just the two-day period when Slammer had its biggest
impact, his group observed over 2 million related security events. To
put that into perspective, over the past three months, the group
observed some 160 million security events.

Those numbers could point to a few things, Allor said: more hacker
activities focused on probing databases and not enough alacrity on the
part of DBAs (database administrators) when it comes to installing
patches.

"We've noted for awhile that there's been a lot of scanning for
database events," said Allor, in Atlanta. "We've seen people scan
ports, looking to see what's open and what they can connect to. And as
you're aware, that's where all the data's at. If you're looking for
something to do, [databases] are a great thing to look at."

Databases are also particularly vulnerable to attack, since DBAs are
loathe to install patches that haven't been thoroughly tested, Allor
said. Indeed, six months before the fast-replicating Slammer worm
struck, Microsoft Corp. had issued a patch that would have covered the
vulnerability the worm exploited. Many DBAs who procrastinated on
installing the patch cited the need to test it in a production
environment before installing it—a choice that left them vulnerable.  
"Everyone's afraid that if you play with something that's working,
you'll break it," Allor said. "They're very conservative in what they
do to upgrade."

Jay Todd, chief financial officer for Service Thread Manufacturing
Co., in Laurinburg, N.C., who also manages IT for the industrial
thread and yarn manufacturer, said there's simply no excuse for
procrastinating on installing patches. "It's ludicrous for everybody
to say that Microsoft's a big, bad wolf because they can't test every
configuration of their product," he said. "They ship it out as a
user-configurable product. There's no way anybody could foresee all
the combinations of setups."

Unlike many DBAs, Todd installs service packs as soon as they're
issued. That kept the company's SQL Server 2000 database software safe
from Slammer, he said, and it protects the database and other
infrastructure from getting attacked by the 15 to 20 e-mail viruses
that arrive in his in-box daily.

ISS' Allor said that those enterprises that can't test patches so they
can be installed quickly should at least throw up more protection
around databases. "I understand the issue, that you need to test it,"  
he said. "If that's the course you're taking, we'd highly recommend
you put more protection around it."

One way to do that is to put up a network segment where patches can be
tested in an ongoing manner. "What you're looking to do is put the
risk where you can tolerate it," Allor said. "Each organization has to
go through its own risk assessment on that: how valuable is the
information, how vulnerable is a machine on this network setup, what
kind of intrusion detection is in front of it, what kind of firewall
protections you have in front of it."



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