We demonstrate the approach by evaluation seven
software packages, composed of four different DBMS
engines (Oracle 10g, SQL Server 2005, PostgreSQL 8, and
MySQL Community Edition 5) and two different operating
systems (Windows XP and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5). We
focus particularly on the features and mechanisms provided
by Operating Systems (OS) and Database Management
Systems (DBMS), which are the two main software systems
in a database server. Note however, that the proposed
approach is generic and can be used to benchmark packages
that include additional software components (e.g., firewalls,
antivirus, intrusion detection systems). Results show that our
approach is quite effective in comparing the security features
of different software products, allowing DBAs to make
educated decisions when selecting the software for a given
database installation. In fact, it is clear that different software
packages allow implementing different security concerns and
that there are security concerns for which few (or none)
software products provide easy to use mechanisms.