threat-modeling.md

Threat Model Analysis for pingcap/tidb

Threat: Weak TiDB User Credentials

Description: Attacker gains unauthorized access to TiDB by guessing or cracking weak passwords for TiDB users (e.g., root, application users). They might use brute-force attacks, dictionary attacks, or social engineering to obtain credentials.

Impact: Data breach (confidentiality loss), data manipulation (integrity loss), denial of service (availability loss), unauthorized access to sensitive information.

TiDB Component Affected: TiDB Server (Authentication Module)

Risk Severity: High

Mitigation Strategies:

• Enforce strong password policies (complexity, length, expiration).
• Regularly rotate passwords.
• Implement multi-factor authentication (MFA) if supported by client applications or connection proxies.
• Use password management tools to generate and store strong passwords.
• Disable or rename default administrative accounts if possible and not needed.

Threat: Insufficient Access Control (RBAC)

Description: Attacker exploits overly permissive user privileges granted through RBAC. They might leverage legitimate application user credentials to access or modify data beyond their intended scope, or escalate privileges if misconfigurations exist.

Impact: Data breach (confidentiality loss), data manipulation (integrity loss), privilege escalation, unauthorized access to sensitive data or functions.

TiDB Component Affected: TiDB Server (Authorization Module, RBAC System)

Risk Severity: High

Mitigation Strategies:

• Implement granular Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) based on the principle of least privilege.
• Regularly review and audit RBAC policies and user permissions.
• Define clear roles and responsibilities for database users and applications.
• Use built-in TiDB roles and customize them as needed, avoiding overly broad permissions.

Threat: Insecure Client-to-TiDB Connection (No TLS/SSL)

Description: Attacker intercepts network traffic between the application and TiDB when connections are not encrypted using TLS/SSL. They might use man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks to steal credentials, session tokens, or sensitive data transmitted in queries and responses.

Impact: Data breach (confidentiality loss), credential theft, session hijacking, man-in-the-middle attacks.

TiDB Component Affected: TiDB Server (Network Communication)

Risk Severity: High

Mitigation Strategies:

• Always enforce TLS/SSL encryption for all client connections to TiDB.
• Configure TiDB to require secure connections and reject unencrypted connections.
• Use valid and trusted TLS certificates.
• Ensure client applications are configured to use TLS/SSL when connecting to TiDB.

Threat: Data at Rest Encryption Not Enabled or Weakly Implemented

Description: Attacker gains physical access to storage media (disks, SSDs) containing TiKV or TiFlash data if data at rest encryption is not enabled or uses weak encryption. They might extract data directly from the storage media, bypassing TiDB access controls.

Impact: Data breach (confidentiality loss), exposure of all data stored in TiDB if storage media is compromised.

TiDB Component Affected: TiKV (Storage Engine), TiFlash (Storage Engine)

Risk Severity: High

Mitigation Strategies:

• Enable data at rest encryption for TiKV and TiFlash using strong encryption algorithms (e.g., AES-256).
• Implement robust key management practices, securely storing and managing encryption keys.
• Regularly audit and verify data at rest encryption configuration.

Threat: Denial of Service (DoS) Attacks on TiDB Components

Description: Attacker overwhelms TiDB components (TiDB Server, PD, TiKV, TiFlash) with excessive requests or malicious traffic, causing service disruption and unavailability. They might use various DoS techniques like SYN floods, UDP floods, or application-level attacks.

Impact: Application downtime (availability loss), service disruption, potential performance degradation for legitimate users.

TiDB Component Affected: TiDB Server, PD, TiKV, TiFlash (Network Communication, Request Processing)

Risk Severity: High

Mitigation Strategies:

• Implement rate limiting and traffic filtering at the network level (firewalls, load balancers, WAF).
• Configure TiDB resource limits and throttling mechanisms to prevent resource exhaustion.
• Deploy TiDB in a highly available and resilient infrastructure with redundancy and failover capabilities.
• Use intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDPS) to detect and mitigate DoS attacks.

Threat: Lack of Security Patching and Updates (Vulnerability Exploitation)

Description: Failure to apply security patches and updates to TiDB components in a timely manner leaves the system vulnerable to known security exploits. Attackers can leverage publicly disclosed vulnerabilities to compromise the TiDB cluster.

Impact: Exposure to known vulnerabilities, potential for data breaches, data manipulation, denial of service, or complete cluster compromise depending on the vulnerability.

TiDB Component Affected: TiDB Server, PD, TiKV, TiFlash (All Components)

Risk Severity: High

Mitigation Strategies:

• Establish a process for regularly monitoring and applying TiDB security patches and updates.
• Subscribe to TiDB security advisories and mailing lists to stay informed about security updates.
• Implement automated patch management processes where possible.
• Test patches in a non-production environment before deploying to production.

Threat: Insecure Access to TiDB Management Interfaces (TiUP, TiDB Dashboard)

Description: Exposing TiDB management interfaces (TiUP, TiDB Dashboard) to the internet or allowing unauthorized access through weak authentication or network misconfigurations. Attackers can gain control over the TiDB cluster, modify configurations, or potentially compromise the entire system.

Impact: Unauthorized cluster management, configuration changes, potential compromise of the entire TiDB cluster, data breaches, denial of service.

TiDB Component Affected: TiUP, TiDB Dashboard (Management Interfaces)

Risk Severity: Critical

Mitigation Strategies:

• Restrict access to TiDB management interfaces to authorized personnel and networks only.
• Do not expose management interfaces directly to the internet.
• Use strong authentication and authorization for management interfaces.
• Consider using VPN or bastion hosts for secure access to management interfaces.
• Regularly audit access to management interfaces.

Threat: TiDB Server Vulnerabilities (SQL Injection Bypass, Privilege Escalation)

Description: Undiscovered or unpatched security vulnerabilities within the TiDB Server component itself, potentially allowing for SQL injection bypass, privilege escalation, or denial of service. Attackers can exploit these vulnerabilities to gain unauthorized access or control.

Impact: Wide range of impacts depending on the vulnerability, including data breaches, data manipulation, privilege escalation, denial of service, and cluster compromise.

TiDB Component Affected: TiDB Server (Core Functionality, SQL Parsing, Execution)

Risk Severity: Critical

Mitigation Strategies:

• Stay updated with TiDB security patches and releases.
• Implement intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDPS) to detect and potentially block exploit attempts.
• Conduct regular security vulnerability scanning and penetration testing of the TiDB cluster.
• Follow secure coding practices in application code to minimize the attack surface.

Threat: PD Vulnerabilities (Cluster Control Compromise, DoS)

Description: Security vulnerabilities within the PD (Placement Driver) component, potentially allowing for cluster control compromise, denial of service, or information disclosure. Attackers can disrupt cluster operations or gain control over data placement and scheduling.

Impact: Cluster instability, data unavailability, potential cluster compromise, denial of service.

TiDB Component Affected: PD (Cluster Management, Scheduling)

Risk Severity: High

Mitigation Strategies:

• Stay updated with TiDB security patches and releases.
• Secure access to PD API and management interfaces.
• Implement monitoring and alerting for PD component health and security events.
• Deploy PD nodes in a highly available and secure configuration.

Threat: TiKV Vulnerabilities (Data Corruption, DoS, Data Leakage)

Description: Security vulnerabilities within the TiKV (Key-Value storage engine) component, potentially allowing for data corruption, denial of service, or data leakage. Attackers can compromise data integrity or availability at the storage layer.

Impact: Data loss, data corruption, cluster instability, denial of service, potential data leakage.

TiDB Component Affected: TiKV (Storage Engine, Data Handling)

Risk Severity: High

Mitigation Strategies:

• Stay updated with TiDB security patches and releases.
• Implement data integrity checks and monitoring at the application and TiDB level.
• Deploy TiKV nodes in a secure and reliable infrastructure.
• Regularly monitor TiKV node health and performance.