Database Auditing ModelsDatabase Auditing Models

Dr. Gabriel

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Auditing OverviewAuditing Overview

• Audit examines: documentation that reflects (from business or individuals); actions, practices, conduct

• Audit measures: compliance to policies, procedures, processes and laws

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DefinitionsDefinitions

• Audit/auditing: process of examining and validating documents, data, processes, procedures, systems

• Audit log: document that contains all activities that are being audited ordered in a chronological manner

• Audit objectives: set of business rules, system controls, government regulations, or security policies

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Definitions (continued)Definitions (continued)

• Auditor: person authorized to audit• Audit procedure: set of instructions for the

auditing process• Audit report: document that contains the audit

findings• Audit trail: chronological record of document

changes, data changes, system activities, or operational events

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Definitions (continued)Definitions (continued)

• Data audit: chronological record of data changes stored in log file or database table object

• Database auditing: chronological record of database activities

• Internal auditing: examination of activities conducted by staff members of the audited organization

• External auditing

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Auditing ActivitiesAuditing Activities

• Evaluate the effectiveness and adequacy of the audited entity

• Ascertain and review the reliability and integrity of the audited entity

• Ensure the organization complies with policies, procedures, regulations, laws, and standards of the government and the industry

• Establish plans, policies, and procedures for conducting audits

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Auditing Activities (continued)Auditing Activities (continued)

• Keep abreast of all changes to audited entity• Keep abreast of updates and new audit

regulations • Provide all audit details to all company

employees involved in the audit• Publish audit guidelines and procedures• Act as liaison between the company and the

external audit team

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Auditing Activities (continued)Auditing Activities (continued)

• Act as a consultant to architects, developers, and business analysts

• Organize and conduct internal audits• Ensure all contractual items are met by the

organization being audited• Identify the audit types that will be used

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Auditing Activities (continued)Auditing Activities (continued)

• Identify security issues that must be addressed• Provide consultation to the Legal Department

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Auditing EnvironmentAuditing Environment

• Auditing examples:– Financial auditing

– Security auditing

• Audit also measures compliance with government regulations and laws

• Audits take place in an environment:– Auditing environment

– Database auditing environment

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Auditing Environment (continued)Auditing Environment (continued)

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Auditing Environment (continued)Auditing Environment (continued)

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Auditing ProcessAuditing Process

• Quality Assurance (QA):– Ensure system is bug free and functioning

according to its specifications

– Ensure product is not defective as it is being produced

• Auditing process: ensures that the system is working and complies with the policies, regulations and laws

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Auditing Process (continued)Auditing Process (continued)

• Performance monitoring: observes if there is degradation in performance at various operation times

• Auditing process flow:– System development life cycle

– Auditing process:• Understand the objectives• Review, verify, and validate the system• Document the results

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Auditing Process (continued)Auditing Process (continued)

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Auditing Process (continued)Auditing Process (continued)

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Auditing ObjectivesAuditing Objectives

• Established as a part of the development process of the entity to be audited

• Reasons:– Complying

• Identification of policies, regulations, and standards that company must comply with

– Informing• All relevant parties to be informed about these policies,

regulations, and standards – Planning

• Plan and document auditing procedures– Executing

• Evaluation, verification, and review of the auditing entityy

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Auditing Objectives (continued)Auditing Objectives (continued)

• Top ten database auditing objectives:– Data integrity

• Validity of data and RI

– Application users and roles• User roles correspond to their responsibilities and skills

– Data confidentiality• Data remains private for unauthorized users

– Access control• Login time and session duration

– Data changes• Audit train of all data changes

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Auditing Objectives (continued)Auditing Objectives (continued)

• Top ten database auditing objectives (continued):– Data structure changes

• Audit trail of all db structural changes

– Database or application availability• Recording all downtimes, their duration, and reason

– Change control• Tracking of changes to be made to the db or app

– Physical access• Tracking physical access to the app or db where they

reside

– Auditing reports• Generation of auditing reports automatically or on-demand

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Auditing Classifications and TypesAuditing Classifications and Types

• Industry and business sectors use different classifications of audits

• Each classification can differ from business to business

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Audit ClassificationsAudit Classifications

• Internal audit:– Conducted by a staff member of the company

being audited

– Purpose:• Verify that all auditing objectives are met• Investigate a situation prompted by an internal

event or incident• Investigate a situation prompted by an external

request

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Audit Classifications (continued)Audit Classifications (continued)

• External audit:– Conducted by a party outside the company that

is being audited

– Purpose:• Investigate the financial or operational state of the

company• Verify that all auditing objectives are met

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Audit Classifications (continued)Audit Classifications (continued)

• Automatic audit:– Prompted and performed automatically (without

human intervention)

– Used mainly for systems and database systems

– Administrators read and interpret reports; inference engine or artificial intelligence

• Manual audit: performed completely by humans• Hybrid audit

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Audit TypesAudit Types

• Financial audit: ensures that all financial transactions are accounted for and comply with the law

• Security audit: evaluates if the system is as secure

• Compliance audit: system complies with industry standards, government regulations, or partner and client policies

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Audit Types (continued)Audit Types (continued)

• Operational audit: verifies if an operation is working according to the policies of the company

• Investigative audit: performed in response to an event, request, threat, or incident to verify integrity of the system

• Product audit: performed to ensure that the product complies with industry standards

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Benefits and Side Effects of AuditingBenefits and Side Effects of Auditing

• Benefits:– Enforces company policies and government

regulations and laws

– Lowers the incidence of security violations

– Identifies security gaps and vulnerabilities

– Provides an audit trail of activities

– Provides means to observe and evaluate operations of the audited entity

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Benefits and Side Effects of Auditing Benefits and Side Effects of Auditing (continued)(continued)

• Benefits (continued):– Provides a sense of security and confidence

– Identifies or removes doubts

– Makes the organization more accountable

– Develops controls that can be used for purposes other than auditing

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Benefits and Side Effects of Auditing Benefits and Side Effects of Auditing (continued)(continued)

• Side effects:– Performance problems

– Too many reports and documents

– Disruption to the operations of the audited entity

– Consumption of resources, and added costs from downtime

– Friction between operators and auditor

– Same from a database perspective

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Auditing ModelsAuditing Models

• Can be implemented with built-in features or your own mechanism

• Information recorded:– State of the object before the action was taken

– Description of the action that was performed

– Name of the user who performed the action

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Auditing Models (continued)Auditing Models (continued)

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Simple Auditing Model 1Simple Auditing Model 1

• Easy to understand and develop• Registers audited entities in the audit model

repository• Chronologically tracks activities performed• Entities: user, table, or column• Activities: DML transaction or logon and off

times

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Simple Auditing Model 1 (continued)Simple Auditing Model 1 (continued)

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Simple Auditing Model 1 (continued)Simple Auditing Model 1 (continued)

• Control columns:– Placeholder for data inserted automatically when

a record is created or updated (date and time record was created and updated)

– Can be distinguished with a CTL prefix

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Simple Auditing Model 1 (continued)Simple Auditing Model 1 (continued)

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Simple Auditing Model 2Simple Auditing Model 2

• Only stores the column value changes• There is a purging and archiving mechanism;

reduces the amount of data stored• Does not register an action that was performed

on the data• Ideal for auditing a column or two of a table

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Simple Auditing Model 2 (continued)Simple Auditing Model 2 (continued)

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Advanced Auditing ModelAdvanced Auditing Model

• Called “advanced” because of its flexibility• Repository is more complex• Registers all entities: fine grained auditing level• Can handle users, actions, tables, columns

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Advanced Auditing Model (continued)Advanced Auditing Model (continued)

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Advanced Auditing Model (continued)Advanced Auditing Model (continued)

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Historical Data ModelHistorical Data Model

• Used when a record of the whole row is required

• Typically used in most financial applications

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Historical Data Model (continued)Historical Data Model (continued)

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Auditing Applications Actions ModelAuditing Applications Actions Model

• Used for auditing specific action or operation such as issuing a refund

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C2 Security RatingC2 Security Rating

• Issued by National Security Administration• Indicates satisfaction of requirements set by the Dept of

Defense– OK to implement in military and government applications

• Given to Microsoft SQL Server• Utilizes DACLs (discretionary access control lists) for

security and audit activities• Requirements:

– Server must be configured as a C2 system– Windows Integrated Authentication is supported– SQL native security is not supported– Only transactional replication is supported

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Questions?Questions?