Xp_cmdshell – the most dangerous extended stored procedure on the planet

"The main reason for it’s dangerous image is xp_cmdshell allows shell scripts to execute on OS."

And, yet, people will grant access to Powershell and all sorts of other stuff. :D

I DO absolutely agree to never grant "users" privs to execute it directly and that includes the supposed "valid reasons" for doing so. If they're not a DBA, there's no valid reason, IMHO. They can do it through a proc, as you suggest. :D

To summarize, I am not at odds with anything you say in this good article except I make no exceptions. :D Thank you for taking the time to write it up and post it.

And, yeah... I know the article is 8 years old but things like this are timeless.

Posted by: Jeff Moden | Feb 28, 2023 4:03:12 PM

Jeff - that is a valid point you raise about Powershell. If you execute Powershell as an Administrator than that has potential for outages - either through mistake or malicious.
Risk analysis is required about how locked down the systems should be versus DBA and Sysadmin access.
It's an interesting question - because on the one hand SQL Server can become a central part of the application including ETLs , and other types of features with a dependancy on OS and other systems , which then makes it a single point of failure , but on the other hand there is increasing awareness of cyberthreats requiring lockdown and escalation procedures

Posted by: Rambler | Mar 1, 2023 12:32:23 AM