At 3/24/00 10:12 AM (Friday), Markus Kemper wrote:

SQL and operating system security should protect against a hacker like
this.  If you don't trust an operating systems security perhaps a
different OS should be considered.  If IB security can be enhanced
in an elegant way thus, not to bloat it, not slow it down with logging
and save points and at all costs not turn itself into an OS level
security replacement I am for it.  The chosen OS needs provide security.

I agree with your comments about using replication for check-pointing the database and for providing a hot backup copy. For the most part I also agree that the OS should provide most fundamental security which is not in the province of the database system.

However, there are security holes which the database system can really help to close. For example, with any legitimate Interbase user account I can effectively crash my Interbase server by writing to a database until the disk fills up. I can also create a new database any time I want since I already know the file path to an existing database and can create a new one which sits right next to it. Then, as owner of that database, I can map external files to perform mischief. I think it is a big weakness in the database, itself, that it allows this rather indiscriminantly.