Re: Is the SA login secure

From: Jasper Smith (jasper_smith9_at_hotmail.com)
Date: 12/30/04 

Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 00:39:15 -0000

It is encrypted but its very weak . If someone captured a network trace of
you logging in they would indeed be able to determine the password fairly
easily. If you want to see how easy it is, below is an example

--this is an example of a captured password packet
--actual password used was thequickbrownfox
/*
e2 a5 23 a5 f3 a5 b2 a5 f2 a5 33 a5 s.a...#. ......3.
000000B4 93 a5 13 a5 83 a5 82 a5 53 a5 d2 a5 43 a5 c3 a5 ........ S...C...
000000C4 53 a5 22 a5
*/
-- need to strip out the non password bytes
/*
e2 a5 23 a5 f3 a5 b2 a5 f2 a5 33 a5 93 a5 13 a5 83 a5 82 a5 53 a5 d2 a5 43
a5 c3 a5 53 a5 22 a5
*/
--form varbinary
declare @packet varchar(500)
set @packet = 'e2 a5 23 a5 f3 a5 b2 a5 f2 a5 33 a5 93 a5 13 a5 83 a5 82 a5
53 a5 d2 a5 43 a5 c3 a5 53 a5 22 a5'
set @packet = '0x'+REPLACE(@packet,' ','')
select @packet
--decode
select
dbo.decoder(0xe2a523a5f3a5b2a5f2a533a593a513a583a582a553a5d2a543a5c3a553a522a5)
as password

You can see the code for the decoder function here
http://www.sqldbatips.com/presentations/REALLY_HACKING_SQL.zip 

-- 
HTH
Jasper Smith (SQL Server MVP)
http://www.sqldbatips.com
I support PASS - the definitive, global
community for SQL Server professionals -
http://www.sqlpass.org
"Buck Taylor" <BuckTaylor@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message 
news:491768E5-428E-4232-A6C9-6517326E3FA7@microsoft.com...
> When I login with an sa account to a SQL server on our network how is the
> login and password transferred? Is it encrypted in someway or transferred 
> in
> plain text? If someone had a sniffer on my network could they see the
> password just come across and grab it?

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