OWNERSHIP CHAINING AND IT’S EXTENSION TO

CROSS-DATABASE CHAINING

Ownership Chaining: It is defined as a security feature in SQL server that

enables the management of access to multiple objects.
•It is done by setting permissions on one object.
•A user is confined within his schema and will be able to access other
objects within his schema.
•The user may want to access data from a different schema for various
reasons.
•All this might not be possible due to the security implementations.
•A new principal is created with only SELECT privilege to solve this
issue.
•This provides an access for users to view the table.

CROSS-DATABASE CHAINING: It is a security feature of SQL server

which allows the database users to access the other ones beside the one
they are using currently.
•It is an extension of ownership chaining.
•It involves the same process but does cross the database boundary.
•the cross database ownership chaining should NOT be turned ON at
server level.
•It must be only turned on for those which need it.

EXAMPLE:

•It might occur when we view one database that references a table in
another database.
•​The view in the first database refers to a table in the second database.
•If it is about objects in the same database and the same user owns the
table and view,it forms an ownership chain that may need the end user
to access the view.
•The same thing is possible with cross-database ownership chaining but
across the database.
•​Cross database ownership chaining can be turned on at either the server
or the database level.
•​ If the cross database ownership chaining is on at the server level, it is
on for all databases on that server, regardless of the individual database
settings.
•​ B
​ y default, the cross database ownership chaining is turned off at server
level​. 
•For databases which are activated for cross database ownership
chaining, an ownership chain is permitted to cross the database layer. 
•The way the ownership chain is determined is similar to an ownership
chain within a database.
•The exception is that the owner of each object is ultimately mapped to a
login.
•If you have an object in one database which refers to an object in a
second database, both databases are configured for database ownership
chaining and both objects have the same owner, then a cross-database
ownership chain is formed​.
•​Security is checked on the first object, but not on the second one.
•​The login querying the first object must also have access into the second
database.
•​If the login does not have the ability to connect to that second database,
the query will fail.
•​If a cross database ownership cannot be formed, and one object refers to
an object in a different database,login must map to a user in each
database.
•​It specifies the appropriate rights on the objects.
THREE CONTAINING LEVELS AS PER ANSI
SQL STANDARDS.

•Securable Principals and permissions are associated with each

securable are a set of permissions that we can grant to a principal.
•Securable range from coarse-grained at the server level and database
level,down through the schema level.
•The ANSI(American National Standard Institute) SQL standard defines
these containing levels:
→Server level
→Database level
→ Schema level

• SQL Server implements all the three levels since the 2005 version.
• Database does not have objects as tables/views directly but has
schemas in between which contain the objects.
• Every database object needs to be inside a schema.
• The default schema in SQL Server, in which all objects are created or
specified is named dbo.

​IMPORTANCE OF SECURING SCHEMAS:

Schema:It is defined as an independent entity that is different from the

user who created the object.

•It is a collection of logical structure of data in SQL databases.

•Even if there is security implemented at app level,the database must
have a built-in access control.
•Access control acts as second-line defense against any other SQL
external attacks.
•There are three main purposes of schema
→name space
→Access control
→Application Interface

•Database users have a default schema.

•If they create an object without schema prefix,it is created in the user
default schema.
•This is important to understand in order to avoid undesired results.
•In general,schema based security is a good way of controlling the access
to an SQL Server database.
•The permissions given to a principal on the schema itself will apply to
all securable objects belonging to the schema.
•Principal has the same permission on all those objects.