PASS Virtual Summit 2020: I'm (Virtually) Presenting

I'll be presenting at 7AM Central Time in the first timeslot of the main three-day PASS Virtual Summit 2020 conference. It's long been a goal of mine to present at the best of all international SQL conferences, and this is the first year it happened for me, so I'm thrilled to be a part of it.

It's not too late to register for the all-online event, with the same great quality content as always, at a fraction of the usual cost of going to Seattle.

Like many (but not all) presentations at PASS Virtual Summit, my 75-minute presentation will feature roughly 60 minutes of pre-recorded (and painstakingly edited) content, with the rest of the time available for live Q&A with the speaker. 

My presentation will cover a lot of important foundational material about security, accounts, authentication. 

• For folks new to SQL Server security design and administration, this will be a great foundation for your learning. 
• For those experienced in SQL admin, this will be a thorough evaluation of what you know, or thought you know, and maybe some gaps in what you know. 
• I think there is content in here to interest everyone in the SQL career lifecycle, and I’m not just guessing at that. I got my first DBA job in 2006. I’ve been giving a presentation on Security at User Groups and SQLSaturdays basics for years, it was one of the first topics I started speaking technically on a decade ago. As my own experience has deepened and broadened throughout my career, so has the content I build into this presentation. 

So I’m going to start basic, and build quickly from there, focusing my content around common hurdles and tasks that database administrators face, in the hopes of deepening or broadening your experience, as well. 

I'm setting the stage for a good conversation around security at PASS Virtual Summit 2020, especially around how permissions behave inside each database, how you can design database security, the relationships between logins, users, and databases. My session one of a four part Learning Pathway on security. We worked together over the past four months to make sure we're presenting a thorough conversation on security. 

In subsequent presentations over the next three days:

• John Morehouse is presenting on Understanding Modern Data Encryption Offerings for SQL Server, including a lot more information on all the various sorts of encryption, plus some important security features of SQL Server like Transparent Data Encryption and Always Encrypted.
• Jeff Renz is presenting on Securing Your Data In Azure: Tips and Tricks, which covers Advanced Threat Detection, the Azure Key Vault, cloud secure connection strings, and certified data sets for security in PowerBI.
• Ed Leighton-Dick will cap it off with a presentation on Building a Security Dashboard for SQL Server, talking about when certs expire and what does that actually mean, more on Azure Advanced Threat Detection, SQL Audit and monitoring.

Protect your SQL Server from Ransomware: Backup Your Service Master Key and More

Not many disaster recovery or SQL migration/upgrade scenarios require the SQL Server instance service master key to be restored. 

Some do.

Recently, by far the most frequent and common disaster recovery scenario for my clients has been the need for a complete, bare-metal rebuild or restore of the master database. Not hardware failure but ransomware (crypto-locking file) attacks have been the cause. 

You should consider complimentary backup solutions that backup/snapshot the entire server (or VM) for SQL Server, but sometimes these technologies are limited or have too much of an impact on the server. A whole VM snapshot for example that is reliant on VSS could incur an unacceptable long IO stun duration when it occurs. 

Regardless, in all cases, SQL Server backups of each database should be taken regularly. This is a conversation for another blog post but a typical pattern is weekly full backups, nightly differential backups, and in the case of databases not in SIMPLE recovery model, 15 minute transaction log backups.

In the case of SQL Servers needing a rebuild from nothing but SQL Server backups, some of the key pieces of information from this checklist will be helpful:

1. The exact SQL Server version of each instance to recover, so that you can restore system databases and settings. Storing the output of the @@Version global variable is helpful. Store this in server documentation.

2. The volume letters and paths of SQL Server data and log files would be helpful too. Output from the system view sys.master_files is helpful so that you can recreate the volumes. Store this in server documentation.

3. The service master key backup file and its password is needed to restore certain items in the master database like linked server information. Though the master database can be restored without restoring the service master key, some encrypted information will be unavailable and will need to be recreated. This is very easy to do, but the catch is making sure that the backup file created and its password are stored security in an enterprise security vault software. There are many options out there for something like this, I won't list any vendors, but you should be able to store both strings and small files securely, with metadata, and with enterprise security around it, like multi-factor authentication.

BACKUP SERVICE MASTER KEY --not actually important for TDE, but important overall and should be backed up regardless.
TO FILE = 'E:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL14.SQL2K17\MSSQL\data\InstanceNameHere_SQLServiceMasterKey_20120314.snk' 
    ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = 'complexpasswordhere';

4. In the event they are present, database master key files. Here's an easy script to create backups of each database's symmetric master key, if it exists. Other keys in the database should be backed up as well, upon creation, and stored in your enterprise security vault.

exec sp_msforeachdb 'use [?];
if exists(select * from sys.symmetric_keys )
begin
select ''Database key(s) found in [?]''
select ''USE [?];''
select ''OPEN MASTER KEY DECRYPTION BY PASSWORD = ''''passwordhere'''';   
BACKUP MASTER KEY TO FILE = ''''c:\temp\?_''+name+''_20200131.snk''''
    ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = ''''passwordhere'''';
GO  ''
from sys.symmetric_keys;
END'

5. Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) certificates, keys and passwords. You should have set this up upon creation, backed up and stored them in your enterprise security vault. For example:

BACKUP CERTIFICATE TDECert_enctest
TO FILE = 'E:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL14.SQL2K17\MSSQL\data\TestingTDEcert.cer'
 WITH PRIVATE KEY ( FILE = 'E:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL14.SQL2K17\MSSQL\data\TestingTDEcert.key' , --This is a new key file for the cert backup, NOT the same as the key for the database MASTER KEY 
    ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = '$12345testpassword123' ); --This password is for the cert backup's key file. 

6. Shared Access Signature certificates, in the cases where your SQL Server has been configured to use a SAS certificate to, for example, send backups directly to Azure Blob Storage via the Backup to URL feature. You should save the script used to create the SAS certificate when it is created, and store it in your enterprise security vault.

7. Integration Services SSISDB database password for the SSIS Catalog. You created this password when you created the SSISDB catalog, and stored in your enterprise security vault. You can always try to open the key to test whether or not your records are correct: 

OPEN MASTER KEY
DECRYPTION BY PASSWORD = N'[old_password]'; --Password used when creating
SSISDB

More information here on restoring the SSISDB key: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/sql-server-integration-services/ssis-catalog-backup-and-restore/ba-p/388058

8. Reporting Services (SSRS) encryption key and password. Backup and restore this key using the Reporting Service Configuration Manager, and store them your enterprise security vault.

In the comments: what other steps have you taken to prevent or recover a SQL Server from a ransomware attack?

SQLSaturday #1000! Join Oregon Virtually this Saturday

Honored to be a part of not just SQLSaturday #1000, but the long proud history of the free community series of SQLSaturdays celebrating their 1000th+ event. (I spoke at SQLSat Memphis #1003 virtually last week, but the numbers are doled out at the time of event registration, not event occurrence.) 

SQLSaturdays have come a long way. Having attended my first SQLSaturday in Pensacola in June of 2009 (#14), then volunteered and spoke at my first SQLSaturday in Baton Rouge two months later in August (#17), it's been awesome to see the community response, legitimacy, and growth of what is and will always be a free, volunteer-driven, authentic event. 

The future of SQLSaturdays needs to remember the story of success. SQLSaturdays are supported by consultants who travel the world, sponsors who give away cool swag, and venues that host increasingly large and sophisticated events. But the core of the events is about making sure the events are accessible to the community, including job seekers and students, for free. Especially in these dire economic times, I firmly believe that SQLSaturdays have a role supporting the development and recovery of the local IT community. I regret that SQLSatBR didn't happen this year, I missed my friends there, even though it was clearly the best decision not to hold a 500+ person event during a pandemic. 

I'm very proud to have been accepted to speak at SQLSat Oregon, once as a speaker and once as a co-speaker with my wife Christine, on our favorite topic. Last year we attended and spoke at SQLSat Oregon for the first time in person and really enjoyed it, this year (like everything) it's virtual, and we'll be joining it in pajama bottoms.

Join me in the first two timeslots, then enjoy the rest of SQLSat Oregon!

Certification Exams Inside Out - 6AM PST - Track 2 - Slide deck

Ethics in Modern Data - 7:30AM PST - Track 6 - Slide deck