Violating Database – Enforced Security Mechanisms

This paper discusses the feasibility of violating the access control, authentication and audit mechanisms of a running process in the Windows server operating systems. Specifically, it discusses the feasibility of totally disabling application – enforced access control in a running service, taking SQL Server 2000 as a sizeable and meaningful example. Topics relating to “runtime patching” exploits are discussed. A three-byte patch is provided that disables access control in SQL Server. Some miscellaneous SQL Server security issues are discussed.

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