BS ISO/IEC 9579:2000 - Page 2

Information technology. Remote database access for SQL with security enhancement. | Status: Current, Confirmed

1 Scope This International Standard, Remote Database Access for SQL (RDA), defines a model for the remote interaction of an SQL-client and one or more SQL-servers through communication media, and defines the encoding of messages, the semantics of messages and associated facilities for mediating the interaction between one SQL-client and one SQL-server. This International Standard also defines a mapping of the RDA Protocol to the specific communication infrastructures TCP/IP and Transport Layer Security (TLS). This International Standard relies upon the facilities provided by ISO/IEC 9075 (SQL) and ISO/IEC 9075-3 (SQL/CLI). This International Standard also:

• - identifies potential security vulnerabilities in remote database access using RDA,
• - defines RDA facilities which protect against the potential vulnerabilities.

Normative annexes provide:

• - a Conformance Proforma,
• - an optional language independent Application Programming Interface defined in the notational conventions of ISO/IEC 9075-3 (SQL/CLI) for invoking RDA Operations,
• - an optional mapping of ISO/IEC 9075-3 (SQL/CLI) functions to RDA Operations,
• - definitions of optional SQL-servers, the RDA Location Server and the RDA Support Server, to facilitate interoperation and data distribution in a heterogeneous environment,
• - a set of security profiles that identify which RDA facilities and other security facilities are required for different levels of protection against potential vulnerabilities.

Informative annexes provide:

• - an analysis of security service requirements,
• - an ASN.1 specification for the RDA Protocol,
• - an ASN.1 specification for the encoding of multiple rows.

This International Standard does not constrain:

• - conforming RDA-client environments to be implemented using any particular processor decomposition,
• - conforming RDA-server environments to be implemented using any particular processor decomposition.

This International Standard refers to but does not define:

• - protocols and security mechanisms for communication confidentiality, integrity and authentication of communicating peers,
• - digital signature and authentication mechanisms supported by protocol elements of RDA.

This International Standard does not define:

• - algorithms for query decomposition or for the combining of results in a distributed database environment,
• - mechanisms for recovery in the event that transaction co-ordination fails,
• - mechanisms for storage integrity and confidentiality using cryptography,
• - mechanisms to counter Denial of Service attacks.