Database Security &

Authorization
Prof. Kirtankumar Rathod
Dept. of Computer Science
ISHLS, Indus University

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Types of Security Issues:
• Database security includes the following,

• Legal and ethical issues ( right to access certain information)

• Policy issues ( what kind of information should not be made

publicly available)

• System-related issues ( at hardware / OS or DBMS level security

functions required)
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Threats to Databases:
1. Loss of integrity
 Information must be protected from improper modification
(insert/ delete/ update operation)
2. Loss of availability
 Database objects must be available to user who have legitimate
right.
3. Loss of confidentiality
 Protection of data from unauthorized disclosure.

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Two types of database security mechanism:
1. Discretionary (Flexible) security mechanisms
 These are used to grant privileges to users to access specific data
files, records or fields in a specified mode.

2. Mandatory (Required) security mechanisms

 These are used to enforce multilevel security by classifying the
data and users into various security classes and then implementing
the appropriate security policy of the organization.

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Database Security and the DBA:
• The DBA’s responsibilities include granting privileges to users who
need to use the system and classifying users and data in accordance
with the policy of the organization.

• DBA perform following types of actions:

1. Account creation
2. Privilege granting
3. Privilege revocation (cancel)
4. Security level assignment

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Discretionary Access Control based on
Granting and Revoking Privileges:
• There are two levels for assigning privileges to use the database
system:
1. The account level:
 The DBA specifies the particular privileges that each account
holds independently of the relations in the database.

2. The relation (table) level

 The DBA can control the privileges to access each individual
relation or view in the database.

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Syntax of Grant and Revoke command in
SQL
• GRANT privilege_name ON object_name
TO {user_name |PUBLIC |role_name}
[WITH GRANT OPTION];

• REVOKE privilege_name ON object_name

FROM {user_name |PUBLIC |role_name}
• Privilege_name : ( ALL, EXECUTE or SELECT )
• Object_name : ( Table name, View name, Procedure name or Sequence)
• User_name : ( user of oracle )
• Public : ( to grant access rights to all users )
• With grant option : allows a user to grant access to other users. 7
Example of granting and revoking privileges
• GRANT SELECT ON TBL_EMP TO KIRTAN;

• GRANT INSERT, UPDATE ON TBL_EMP TO KIRTAN;

• REVOKE UPDATE ON TBL_EMP FROM KIRTAN;

• GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES TO KIRTAN;

• REVOKE ALL PRIVILEGES FROM KIRTAN;

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Mandatory Access Control & Role-based
Access Control for Multilevel Security
• Most of the commercial DBMS currently providing only discretionary
access control. The multilevel security exists in government, military,
and intelligent applications.
• Security classes are (TS, S, C and U)
High Top Secret
Secret
Confidential
Low Unclassified

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Mandatory Access Control & Role-based
Access Control for Multilevel Security
• Bell-LaPadula model is used for multilevel security.
• This model classifies each subject (user, account, program) and object
(relation, tuple, column, view, operation) into one of the security classes.

• Two restrictions are enforced on data access based on the subject/object

classification:
1. A subject S is not allowed read access to an object O unless class(S) >= class(O).
This is known as the simple security property.
2. A subject S is not allowed to write an object O unless class(S) <= class (O). This
is known as the star property.

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Example of multi-level relation:

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