SQL Server must generate audit records for all privileged activities or other system-level access.

From MS SQL Server 2016 Instance Security Technical Implementation Guide

Part of SRG-APP-000504-DB-000354

Associated with: CCI-000172

SV-93997r2_rule SQL Server must generate audit records for all privileged activities or other system-level access.

Vulnerability discussion

Without tracking privileged activity, it would be difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events relating to an incident or identify those responsible for one. System documentation should include a definition of the functionality considered privileged. A privileged function in this context is any operation that modifies the structure of the database, its built-in logic, or its security settings. This would include all Data Definition Language (DDL) statements and all security-related statements. In an SQL environment, it encompasses, but is not necessarily limited to: CREATE ALTER DROP GRANT REVOKE DENY There may also be Data Manipulation Language (DML) statements that, subject to context, should be regarded as privileged. Possible examples in SQL include: TRUNCATE TABLE; DELETE, or DELETE affecting more than n rows, for some n, or DELETE without a WHERE clause; UPDATE or UPDATE affecting more than n rows, for some n, or UPDATE without a WHERE clause; any SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE to an application-defined security table executed by other than a security principal. Depending on the capabilities of SQL Server and the design of the database and associated applications, audit logging may be achieved by means of DBMS auditing features, database triggers, other mechanisms, or a combination of these. Note that it is particularly important to audit, and tightly control, any action that weakens the implementation of this requirement itself, since the objective is to have a complete audit trail of all administrative activity.

Check content

Determine if an audit is configured and started by executing the following query: SELECT name AS 'Audit Name', status_desc AS 'Audit Status', audit_file_path AS 'Current Audit File' FROM sys.dm_server_audit_status If no records are returned, this is a finding. Execute the following query to verify the following events are included in the server audit specification: APPLICATION_ROLE_CHANGE_PASSWORD_GROUP AUDIT_CHANGE_GROUP BACKUP_RESTORE_GROUP DATABASE_CHANGE_GROUP DATABASE_OBJECT_CHANGE_GROUP DATABASE_OBJECT_OWNERSHIP_CHANGE_GROUP DATABASE_OBJECT_PERMISSION_CHANGE_GROUP DATABASE_OPERATION_GROUP DATABASE_OWNERSHIP_CHANGE_GROUP DATABASE_PERMISSION_CHANGE_GROUP DATABASE_PRINCIPAL_CHANGE_GROUP DATABASE_PRINCIPAL_IMPERSONATION_GROUP DATABASE_ROLE_MEMBER_CHANGE_GROUP DBCC_GROUP LOGIN_CHANGE_PASSWORD_GROUP SCHEMA_OBJECT_CHANGE_GROUP SCHEMA_OBJECT_OWNERSHIP_CHANGE_GROUP SCHEMA_OBJECT_PERMISSION_CHANGE_GROUP SERVER_OBJECT_CHANGE_GROUP SERVER_OBJECT_OWNERSHIP_CHANGE_GROUP SERVER_OBJECT_PERMISSION_CHANGE_GROUP SERVER_OPERATION_GROUP SERVER_PERMISSION_CHANGE_GROUP SERVER_PRINCIPAL_CHANGE_GROUP SERVER_PRINCIPAL_IMPERSONATION_GROUP SERVER_ROLE_MEMBER_CHANGE_GROUP SERVER_STATE_CHANGE_GROUP TRACE_CHANGE_GROUP USER_CHANGE_PASSWORD_GROUP SELECT a.name AS 'AuditName', s.name AS 'SpecName', d.audit_action_name AS 'ActionName', d.audited_result AS 'Result' FROM sys.server_audit_specifications s JOIN sys.server_audits a ON s.audit_guid = a.audit_guid JOIN sys.server_audit_specification_details d ON s.server_specification_id = d.server_specification_id WHERE a.is_state_enabled = 1 AND d.audit_action_name IN ('APPLICATION_ROLE_CHANGE_PASSWORD_GROUP','AUDIT_CHANGE_GROUP','BACKUP_RESTORE_GROUP','DATABASE_CHANGE_GROUP','DATABASE_OBJECT_CHANGE_GROUP','DATABASE_OBJECT_OWNERSHIP_CHANGE_GROUP','DATABASE_OBJECT_PERMISSION_CHANGE_GROUP','DATABASE_OPERATION_GROUP','DATABASE_OWNERSHIP_CHANGE_GROUP','DATABASE_PERMISSION_CHANGE_GROUP','DATABASE_PRINCIPAL_CHANGE_GROUP','DATABASE_PRINCIPAL_IMPERSONATION_GROUP','DATABASE_ROLE_MEMBER_CHANGE_GROUP','DBCC_GROUP','LOGIN_CHANGE_PASSWORD_GROUP','SCHEMA_OBJECT_CHANGE_GROUP','SCHEMA_OBJECT_OWNERSHIP_CHANGE_GROUP','SCHEMA_OBJECT_PERMISSION_CHANGE_GROUP','SERVER_OBJECT_CHANGE_GROUP','SERVER_OBJECT_OWNERSHIP_CHANGE_GROUP','SERVER_OBJECT_PERMISSION_CHANGE_GROUP','SERVER_OPERATION_GROUP','SERVER_PERMISSION_CHANGE_GROUP','SERVER_PRINCIPAL_CHANGE_GROUP','SERVER_PRINCIPAL_IMPERSONATION_GROUP','SERVER_ROLE_MEMBER_CHANGE_GROUP','SERVER_STATE_CHANGE_GROUP','TRACE_CHANGE_GROUP','USER_CHANGE_PASSWORD_GROUP') If the identified groups are not returned, this is a finding.

Fix text

Add the required events to the server audit specification USE [master]; GO ALTER SERVER AUDIT SPECIFICATION STIG_AUDIT_SERVER_SPECIFICATION WITH (STATE = OFF); GO ALTER SERVER AUDIT SPECIFICATION STIG_AUDIT_SERVER_SPECIFICATION ADD (APPLICATION_ROLE_CHANGE_PASSWORD_GROUP); ALTER SERVER AUDIT SPECIFICATION STIG_AUDIT_SERVER_SPECIFICATION ADD (AUDIT_CHANGE_GROUP); ALTER SERVER AUDIT SPECIFICATION STIG_AUDIT_SERVER_SPECIFICATION ADD (BACKUP_RESTORE_GROUP); ALTER SERVER AUDIT SPECIFICATION STIG_AUDIT_SERVER_SPECIFICATION ADD (DATABASE_CHANGE_GROUP); ALTER SERVER AUDIT SPECIFICATION STIG_AUDIT_SERVER_SPECIFICATION ADD (DATABASE_OBJECT_CHANGE_GROUP); ALTER SERVER AUDIT SPECIFICATION STIG_AUDIT_SERVER_SPECIFICATION ADD (DATABASE_OBJECT_OWNERSHIP_CHANGE_GROUP); ALTER SERVER AUDIT SPECIFICATION STIG_AUDIT_SERVER_SPECIFICATION ADD (DATABASE_OBJECT_PERMISSION_CHANGE_GROUP); ALTER SERVER AUDIT SPECIFICATION STIG_AUDIT_SERVER_SPECIFICATION ADD (DATABASE_OPERATION_GROUP); ALTER SERVER AUDIT SPECIFICATION STIG_AUDIT_SERVER_SPECIFICATION ADD (DATABASE_OWNERSHIP_CHANGE_GROUP); ALTER SERVER AUDIT SPECIFICATION STIG_AUDIT_SERVER_SPECIFICATION ADD (DATABASE_PERMISSION_CHANGE_GROUP); ALTER SERVER AUDIT SPECIFICATION STIG_AUDIT_SERVER_SPECIFICATION ADD (DATABASE_PRINCIPAL_CHANGE_GROUP); ALTER SERVER AUDIT SPECIFICATION STIG_AUDIT_SERVER_SPECIFICATION ADD (DATABASE_PRINCIPAL_IMPERSONATION_GROUP); ALTER SERVER AUDIT SPECIFICATION STIG_AUDIT_SERVER_SPECIFICATION ADD (DATABASE_ROLE_MEMBER_CHANGE_GROUP); ALTER SERVER AUDIT SPECIFICATION STIG_AUDIT_SERVER_SPECIFICATION ADD (DBCC_GROUP); ALTER SERVER AUDIT SPECIFICATION STIG_AUDIT_SERVER_SPECIFICATION ADD (LOGIN_CHANGE_PASSWORD_GROUP); ALTER SERVER AUDIT SPECIFICATION STIG_AUDIT_SERVER_SPECIFICATION ADD (SCHEMA_OBJECT_CHANGE_GROUP); ALTER SERVER AUDIT SPECIFICATION STIG_AUDIT_SERVER_SPECIFICATION ADD (SCHEMA_OBJECT_OWNERSHIP_CHANGE_GROUP); ALTER SERVER AUDIT SPECIFICATION STIG_AUDIT_SERVER_SPECIFICATION ADD (SCHEMA_OBJECT_PERMISSION_CHANGE_GROUP); ALTER SERVER AUDIT SPECIFICATION STIG_AUDIT_SERVER_SPECIFICATION ADD (SERVER_OBJECT_CHANGE_GROUP); ALTER SERVER AUDIT SPECIFICATION STIG_AUDIT_SERVER_SPECIFICATION ADD (SERVER_OBJECT_OWNERSHIP_CHANGE_GROUP); ALTER SERVER AUDIT SPECIFICATION STIG_AUDIT_SERVER_SPECIFICATION ADD (SERVER_OBJECT_PERMISSION_CHANGE_GROUP); ALTER SERVER AUDIT SPECIFICATION STIG_AUDIT_SERVER_SPECIFICATION ADD (SERVER_OPERATION_GROUP); ALTER SERVER AUDIT SPECIFICATION STIG_AUDIT_SERVER_SPECIFICATION ADD (SERVER_PERMISSION_CHANGE_GROUP); ALTER SERVER AUDIT SPECIFICATION STIG_AUDIT_SERVER_SPECIFICATION ADD (SERVER_PRINCIPAL_CHANGE_GROUP); ALTER SERVER AUDIT SPECIFICATION STIG_AUDIT_SERVER_SPECIFICATION ADD (SERVER_PRINCIPAL_IMPERSONATION_GROUP); ALTER SERVER AUDIT SPECIFICATION STIG_AUDIT_SERVER_SPECIFICATION ADD (SERVER_ROLE_MEMBER_CHANGE_GROUP); ALTER SERVER AUDIT SPECIFICATION STIG_AUDIT_SERVER_SPECIFICATION ADD (SERVER_STATE_CHANGE_GROUP); ALTER SERVER AUDIT SPECIFICATION STIG_AUDIT_SERVER_SPECIFICATION ADD (TRACE_CHANGE_GROUP); ALTER SERVER AUDIT SPECIFICATION STIG_AUDIT_SERVER_SPECIFICATION ADD (USER_CHANGE_PASSWORD_GROUP); GO ALTER SERVER AUDIT SPECIFICATION STIG_AUDIT_SERVER_SPECIFICATION WITH (STATE = ON); GO

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