Re: security against dbaŽs

[Ansgar Wiechers <bugtraq () planetcobalt net>]

On 2009-02-12 rohnskii () gmail com wrote:
> Yes, I agree with the others that sensitive data should be encrypted
> in the DB.

I don't. Encryption is not really suitable to protect data on a live
system. At least not as long as you store the key on the same system.
If anything, I'd place the tablespaces containing sensitive data on
encrypted partitions or disks, but I fail to see what good encryption in
the database would do.

> But generally the idea behind that type of encryption (I think) is
> that data at rest (sitting on the Hard drive) in the DB should be
> unreadable to "the bad guys".  But the DB would have the key and
> decrypt it when an authorized person (presumably our DBA in this
> example) reads it. 

If the database has the key, the bad guys may get hold of it as well,
which would render the encryption useless.

Regards
Ansgar Wiechers
-- 
"All vulnerabilities deserve a public fear period prior to patches
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