Burton Strauss wrote:

>Traditionally the schema for a database is NOT secure information.
>Applications download this information to build queries on the fly.
>
>The essential problem is relying on security by obscurity, "I have user
>accounts (nss) that have publicly available credentials but noone [sic]
>should be able to see how the database really is organized".
>
>

I don't agree - basic security says that no user should have more access
than he strictly needs. A user that only uses a fixed set of queries
doesn't need to see how the database is laid out - if he can, an
attacker wouldn't need to guess the names of other fields that may
contain sensitive information.

Obviously those fields should be access-restricted as well, but you
shouldn't make things easier on any front.

--
You prefer the company of the opposite sex, but are well liked by your own.
--

Public GPG key at blackhole.pca.dfn.de

GCS/IT d- s:+ a- C(+++)$ UL++++$ P+++(++++)$ L++(+++)$ !E- W+(+++)$
N+(++) o K w$ !O !M V PS(++)@ PE-(++)@ Y+ PGP++(+++) t(+) 5 X R tv--
b++(++++) DI++(++++) D++ G e++>+++++ h(+) r y+**

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.1 (GNU/Linux)

iD8DBQFD1gsHxz0AbiB4HpQRAvpTAJ9KZOS5FT2D5sl/nOvMr3qLK5NfOgCgmYG6
ZxfxLeTbf9yi1MXQPlx2FDo=
=2TR6
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

[ reply ]