The Database Hacker's Handbook: Defending Database Servers

Introduction

Why do we care about database security?

If money could be said to exist anywhere in a network, it exists on a database server. When we say that modern economies are reliant on computers, what we really mean is that modern economies are reliant on database systems. Databases are behind the systems that affect almost every aspect of our lives — our bank accounts, medical records, pensions, employment records, phone records, tax records, car registration details, supermarket purchases, our children's school grades — almost every piece of information of significance in our lives is stored in a modern relational database management system. Since this volume covers seven of the most popular relational database systems, chances are that your personal information is currently being stored in the very systems that are the subject of this book.

We (the authors of this volume) consider database security to be the single most important information security issue there is. If database systems — the systems we all implicitly trust to hold our most sensitive data — are not secure, the potential impact on our lives, and even on our broader society, could be devastating.

Why then do we want to publish a book that describes methods for attacking databases? Simply put, we want to put this information into the hands of database administrators, security professionals, and network auditors so that the people whose job it is to defend these systems understand more fully how others attack ...