Security seems to have no boundaries. I’ve been tightening our database security lately, and it seems like this could go on forever: from app to console to privileges to server, there are so many aspects to managing database security. Unfortunately, this is a field where MySQL is in particular weak, and with very little work done in the many years I’ve been working with MySQL.
My very own top-wanted security features for MySQL follows. Surely this is but a small subset, your mileage may vary.
Autherntication-only SSL
By default, MySQL client API is unencrypted and passwords are sent in cleartext. MySQL supports SSL, but it an “all or nothing” deal: if you want to use SSL, then everything goes by SSL: any query, SELECT, DDL and whatnot.
[UPDATE]: Thanks to Davi & Jan for correcting me on this: passwords are not sent via cleartext. I’m not sure by which constellation I saw cleartext passwords being sent — but obviously that was long time ago. Just verified via tcpdump, got “mysql_native_password” message and no cleartext password. Lesson learned!
Roles
Need I elaborate? This is a fundamental construct in a database grant system. The effort of maintaining multiple accounts with similar/identical privileges is overwhelming. (PS I haven’t used Securich to date)
Host aggregation
In MySQL the combination of user+host makes for a distinct account. Thus, ‘gromit’@’192.168.%’ is a completely different account than ‘gromit’@’10.10.%’. I get the idea: you can have more privileges to, say, gromit@localhost than for gromit@’192.%’. In practice, this only makes a headache. In all my years, I have never encountered nor designed a privilege set where two accounts of the same user had different set of privileges. Never ever ever. It is confusing and pointless: if an account has a different set of roles, just call it by another name! Continue reading » “MySQL security top wish list”