The Derby developers are considering introducing a single master
security property. Turning this property on will enable most Derby
security mechanisms:
1) Authentication - Will be on, requiring username/password credentials
at connection time. Derby will supply a default authentication mechanism.
2) SQL authorization - Will be on, hiding a user's data from other
people. In addition, Derby will support more SQL Standard protections
for Java routines.
3) File permissions - Will be tightened as described by DERBY-5363.
4) PUBLIC -This keyword will not be allowed as a user name.
5) SSL/TLS encryption - Will shield client/server traffic.
6) Server administration - Will require credentials.
When the property is off, Derby will behave as it does today:
Authentication, authorization, and network encryption will be off, file
permissions will inherit defaults from the account which runs the VM,
PUBLIC will be a legal user name, and server administration won't need
credentials.
This new master property will make it easier to configure a more secure
application. We want to introduce the property in an upcoming 10.x
release, where it will default to being off. That means that it won't
cause compatibility problems.
Later on, we might change the default for this property so that it would
normally be turned on. This would make Derby more secure out of the box
at the cost of breaking existing applications. Many applications would
need to explicitly turn the property off in order to run as they did
previously. Release notes would document this behavioral change and we
would bump the major release id from 10 to 11 in order to call attention
to the change.
We would like your feedback on this trade-off between security out of
the box versus disruption. Should this extra security be enabled by default?
Thanks,
-Rick
