General security

Top 10 database security tools you should know

Database security is one of the most significant topics that have been discussed among security professionals. The rising number of incidents indicates that things should be taken care of instantaneously. Database security should provide controlled and protected access to the users and should also maintain the overall quality of the data.

The threats related to database security are evolving every day, so it is required to come up with promising security techniques, strategies, and tools that can safeguard databases from potential attacks.

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There are various tools that can be used to ensure database security and are recommended by many cyber security professionals and ethical hackers. Some of the top database security tools are discussed below:

MSSQL DataMask

Every organization makes the common mistake of using live data in test databases. To avoid this, MSSQL Data Mask provides developers the ability to mask data for development, testing, or outsourcing projects, involving the SQL Server databases. MSSQL Data Mask has tools that are categorized for data masking and is used for protecting data that is classified as personally identifiable data, sensitive personal data or commercially sensitive data.

Scuba

Scuba is a free database security software tool from the vendor Imperva that is used for analyzing more than 2,000 common problems such as weak passwords, known configuration risks, and missing patches on a range of database platforms. Scuba is being used across enterprises as a database patch-up enhancer.

AppDetectivePro

AppDetectivePRO is a database and big data store scanner that can immediately uncover configuration mistakes, identification and access control issues, missing patches or any toxic combination of settings that could lead to escalation-of-privilege or denial-of-service attacks, data leakage or unauthorized modification of data.

Nmap

Nmap ("Network Mapper") is a free and open-source utility for network discovery and security auditing. Many systems and network administrators also find it useful for tasks such as network inventory, managing service upgrade schedules, and monitoring host or service uptime. Nmap uses raw IP packets in novel ways to determine what hosts are available on the network, what services (application name and version) those hosts are offering, what operating systems (and OS versions) they are running, what type of packet filters/firewalls are in use, and dozens of other characteristics.

Zenmap

Zenmap is the official Nmap Security Scanner GUI. It is a multi-platform (Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, BSD, etc.) free and open-source application that aims to make Nmap easy for beginners to use while providing advanced features for experienced Nmap users. It enables you to save frequently used scans as a profile to make them easy to run repeatedly. It contains a number of very important features such as scanning and detecting database instances and vulnerabilities.

BSQL Hacker

The BSQL Hacker is a SQL Injection Tester that handles blind SQL injection, time-based blind SQL injection, deep blind SQL injection, and error-based SQL injection attacks. The software is designed in such a way that in can also handle Oracle and MySQL databases along with automatically extracting database data and schemas.

SQLRECON

SQLRECON is a database discovery tool that performs active and passive scans of a network to identify SQL Server instances. Due to the proliferation of personal firewalls, inconsistent network library configurations, and multiple-instance support, SQL Server installations are becoming increasingly difficult to discover, assess, and maintain. SQLRecon is designed to remedy this problem by combining all known means of SQL Server/MSDE discovery into a single tool that can be used to ferret out servers you never knew existed on your network so you can properly secure them.

Oracle auditing tools

The Oracle Auditing Tools is a toolkit that could be used to audit security within Oracle database servers. This open-source toolkit includes password-attack tools, command-line query tools, and TNS-listener query tools to test the security of Oracle database configurations. Moreover, the tools are Java-based and were tested on both Windows and Linux.

OScanner

OScanner is an Oracle assessment framework developed in Java. It has a plugin-based architecture and comes with a couple of plugins that currently do:

• Sid Enumeration
• Passwords tests (common & dictionary)
• Enumerate Oracle version
• Enumerate account roles
• Enumerate account privileges
• Enumerate account hashes
• Enumerate audit information
• Enumerate password policies
• Enumerate database links

The results are given in a graphical Java tree.

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DB Defence

DbDefence is an Easy-to-use, affordable, and effective security solution for encrypting complete databases and protecting their schema within the MS SQL Server. It allows database administrators and developers to encrypt databases completely. Db Defence protects the database from unauthorized access, modification, and distribution. It offers a long and strong array of database security features such as strong encryption, protection of SQL from SQL Profiler.

Databases are the key component of any organization, so it is essential to protect these at any cost. When an attacker gains access to the database, they can damage it of expose it and can disturb the entire functioning of that organization. However, we can assure the security of the database by using and testing our databases with these tools. Additionally, there are many other tools available as well, but these are some of the most recommended tools by experienced professionals from the industry.