Detections
Analytics

SQL4-00-036500 - SQL Server must generate Trace or Audit records when unsuccessful attempts to modify locally-defined security objects occur - Event ID 162

Information

SQL Server protects its built-in security objects (tables, views, functions, procedures, etc.) from alteration by database users and administrators. However, applications sometimes have additional, security-related objects defined in the database. ALTER operations on these objects must be monitored.

To aid in diagnosis, it is necessary to keep track of failed attempts in addition to the successful ones.

Use of SQL Server Audit is recommended. All features of SQL Server Audit are available in the Enterprise and Developer editions of SQL Server 2014. It is not available at the database level in other editions. For this or legacy reasons, the instance may be using SQL Server Trace for auditing, which remains an acceptable solution for the time being. Note, however, that Microsoft intends to remove most aspects of Trace at some point after SQL Server 2016.

Use of SQL Server Audit's SCHEMA_OBJECT_CHANGE_GROUP causes capture of all attempts, successful and otherwise, to CREATE, ALTER, or DROP any schema-scoped objects. The [Succeeded] column in the audit output indicates the success or failure of the attempted action. Be aware, however, that it may report True in some cases where one would intuitively expect False.

Solution

Where SQL Server Trace is in use, define and enable a trace that captures all auditable events. The script provided in the supplemental file Trace.sql can be used to do this.

Where SQL Server Audit is in use, design and deploy a SQL Server Audit that captures all auditable events. The script provided in the supplemental file Audit.sql can be used for this.

Alternatively, to add the necessary data capture to an existing server audit specification, run the script:
USE [master];
GO
ALTER SERVER AUDIT SPECIFICATION <server_audit_specification_name> WITH (STATE = OFF);
GO
ALTER SERVER AUDIT SPECIFICATION <server_audit_specification_name> ADD (SCHEMA_OBJECT_CHANGE_GROUP);
GO
ALTER SERVER AUDIT SPECIFICATION <server_audit_specification_name> WITH (STATE = ON);
GO

See Also

https://dl.dod.cyber.mil/wp-content/uploads/stigs/zip/U_MS_SQL_Server_2014_Y22M10_STIG.zip

Item Details

Category: AUDIT AND ACCOUNTABILITY

References: 800-53|AU-12c., CAT|II, CCI|CCI-000172, Rule-ID|SV-81925r2_rule, STIG-ID|SQL4-00-036500, Vuln-ID|V-67435

Plugin: MS_SQLDB

Control ID: d7e95a24c9b629e5b67ebed18cd4450990ce739b8e4347bfa4bc0c70d39e46af