Security of DB Connections

Database
1

Hi to All,

Using Delphi 10.4 to create a Windows program with remote user access to a Firebird DB
Devart DB access components

Our application is intended to be located on a remote server that users will log in via an IP address style connection address

My question relates to security of data and user connection points

Can anyone suggest some security procedures/components to adopt in order to assist in application security of data integrity, user connection and the like.

Are there things within the Firebird DB that we should be doing to increase security of data integrity, user connection and the like.

Are there things within the our Delphi program that we should be doing to increase security of data integrity, user connection and the like.

Many thanks in advance
Grant Brown

2

Are you using a Local Area Network here Grant ?
The solution will depend upon your architecture (Client/Server ?).

3

Another consideration pertains to how / if you want to limit specific users access to th data. To do so, you may need to instantiate “User Groups”. For example - groups for Read Only, Read Write, Write Only. And to limit certain users to specific database tables.

4

I hope this connection will be via a vpn?

Exposing a db engine directly to the internet is a big red flag.

1 Like
5

Yes this.

I have come to like Wireguard a lot of recent times.
Fast, free, fairly secure.
Requires a single udp port punched through firewall.

6

I was a bit unclear as to whether Grant was seeking client access via a LAN (Local Are Network) or WAN (Wide Area Network).

If via a LAN it might be acceptable for the user to gain access to the database directly via a windows Login.

But these days, I definitely wouldn’t consider direct DB access over any type of WAN (too risky).

In both circumstances I’d personally be looking for a Client Server architecture (where you have a Client Side Delphi application which authenticates to the Server Side Delphi application). The Sever application then manages requests (executes the SQL) and returns results to the Client.

For the Client/Server solution, I’d go for mORMot. Excellent security and enterprise scalability. But it communicates over HTTP (my preferred solution for the past 18 years). And using this solution, it’s easy to build a WEB based solution that supports both a Delphi / FPC client OR / AND a web browser based JavaScript client, without making any changes to the Pascal Server App.

If you’re interested in the mORMot solution Grant I’ve got source code examples from past ADUG presentations that should make it very easy to get up and running (one of these samples uses Firebird)

1 Like
7

Let me know if you’re interested in the samples or need more detail.

8

Oh, I should have said - mORMot is Open-source - free :slight_smile:

9

Hi Robert,

The Firebird examples would be most welcome

10

Sent you a private message Grant.
Post here if you don’t get it (I’ve never done that using Discourse before).