SA0166 : Avoid altering security within stored procedures

Avoid incorporating security statements like GRANT, REVOKE, or DENY within the body of stored procedures.

Description

Security management statements inside stored procedures can create problems in SQL Server environments. These statements manipulate permissions in ways that might not be immediately clear, potentially leading to security issues that are hard to track and resolve.

For example:

SQL
Copy
1-- Problematic use of security statements
2CREATE PROCEDURE UpdatePermissions
3AS
4BEGIN
5    GRANT SELECT ON dbo.Employees TO UserRole;
6END

In this case, embedding GRANT within a stored procedure can obscure permission assignments, complicating auditing and maintenance. Such practices can prompt multiple unnecessary database calls and complicate troubleshooting when permissions are modified unexpectedly during procedure execution.

  • Hidden security changes can make auditing difficult.

  • Increased risk of accidental permission changes when procedures are altered.

How to fix

Refactor stored procedures to remove embedded security management statements like GRANT, REVOKE, or DENY to enhance security and maintainability.

Follow these steps to address the issue:

  1. Identify stored procedures that include embedded security statements such as GRANT, REVOKE, or DENY.

  2. Refactor the stored procedures by removing security statements from the procedure body.

  3. Manage security permissions separately using dedicated scripts or SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) to apply permissions at the database level.

  4. Implement auditing practices to monitor permission changes and ensure comprehensive security management.

For example:

SQL
Copy
 1-- Original stored procedure with embedded security statement
 2CREATE PROCEDURE UpdatePermissions
 3AS
 4BEGIN
 5    GRANT SELECT ON dbo.Employees TO UserRole;
 6END
 7
 8-- Refactored approach with separate security management
 9-- Stored procedure without security statement
10CREATE PROCEDURE UpdatePermissions
11AS
12BEGIN
13    -- Procedure logic here
14END
15
16-- Separate script to manage permissions
17GRANT SELECT ON dbo.Employees TO UserRole;

Scope

The rule has a Batch scope and is applied only on the SQL script.

Parameters

Rule has no parameters.

Remarks

The rule does not need Analysis Context or SQL Connection.

Effort To Fix
13 minutes per issue.
Categories

Design Rules, Security Rules

Additional Information

There is no additional info for this rule.

Example Test SQL
SQL
Copy
 1CREATE PROCEDURE testsp_SA0200 (
 2        @Code VARCHAR(30) = NULL
 3)
 4AS
 5BEGIN
 6    IF @Code IS NULL
 7        SELECT * FROM Table1
 8    ELSE
 9        SELECT * FROM Table1 WHERE Code like @Code + '%'
10
11    UPDATE MyTable SET Col1 = 'myvalue'
12
13    BEGIN TRAN
14        GRANT EXEC ON testsp_SA0200 to myuser
15    COMMIT TRAN
16
17    GRANT EXEC ON testsp_SA0200 to myuser  --IGNORE:SA0166
18
19    REVOKE SELECT ON dbo.Table1 TO myuser
20
21    DENY EXECUTE ON testsp_SA0200 to myuser
22
23END
24
25-- this is ignored, because it is reported by SA0150
26GRANT EXEC ON testsp_SA0200 to myuser
Analysis Results
  Message Line Column
1 SA0166 : Avoid altering security within stored procedures. 14 8
2 SA0166 : Avoid altering security within stored procedures. 19 4
3 SA0166 : Avoid altering security within stored procedures. 21 4
See Also

Other Resources

Analysis Rules