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Lesson 9
Database security

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Learning objectives

•Upon completion of this lesson, students will be able to:

1. Create views and work correctly on predefined views
2. Have experience with a DBMS: manage user account and database
access permissions

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Outline
1. View
2. Privileges and User Management in SQL

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1. View
1.1. View definition
1.2. Accessing views
1.3. Updatable views
1.4. Materialized views

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1.1. View definition

• A view is a relation defined in terms of stored tables (called base tables)

and other views
• Two kinds:
• Virtual = not stored in the database; just a query for constructing the
relation
• Materialized = actually constructed and stored
• Declaring views:
CREATE [MATERIALIZED] VIEW <name> AS <query>;
• Default is virtual

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1.1. View definition: Removal

• Dropping views: DROP VIEW <name>;

DROP VIEW female_student;
• Affection:
• Deleting the definition of views: the female_student view no longer exists
• No tuples of the base relation (student relation) is affected

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1.2. Accessing views
• Declare:
CREATE VIEW monitor AS
SELECT student_id, first_name, last_name, dob, clazz_id
FROM student, clazz
WHERE student_id = monitor_id ;
• Query a view as if it were a base table
SELECT student_id, first_name, last_name, dob
FROM monitor
WHERE clazz_id = '20172201' ;

• A limited ability to modify views

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1.3. Updatable views
• The SQL rules are complex

• They permit modifications on views that are defined by selecting (using SELECT, not
SELECT DISTINCT) some attributes from one relation R (which may itself be an
updatable view):
• The WHERE clause must not involve R in a subquery
• The FROM clause can only consist of one occurrence of R and no other
relation
• The list in the SELECT clause must include enough attributes that for every
tuple inserted into the relation R (other attributes filled with NULL values or the
proper default)
- There is no GROUP BY clause

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1.3. Updatable views: Example
• Base table:
• student(student_id, first_name,last_name,dob,gender,address,note,clazz_id)
• Updatable view
CREATE VIEW female_student AS
SELECT student_id, first_name, last_name FROM student
WHERE gender = 'F';
• Insert into views:
INSERT INTO female_student VALUES('20160301', 'Hoai An', 'Tran');
means
INSERT INTO student(student_id, first_name, last_name)
VALUES ('20160301', 'Hoai An', 'Tran');

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1.3. Updatable views: Example
• Delete from views:
DELETE FROM female_student WHERE first_name LIKE '%An' ;
means
DELETE FROM student
WHERE first_name LIKE '%An' AND gender = 'F';
• Update views:
UPDATE female_student SET first_name = 'Hoài Ân'
WHERE first_name = 'Hoai An' ;
means
UPDATE student SET first_name = 'Hoài Ân'
WHERE first_name = 'Hoai An' AND gender = 'F';

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1.3. Updatable views: Views and INSTEAD OF trigger

• Generally, it is impossible to modify a virtual view, because it doesn’t exist.

• But an INSTEAD OF trigger (next lesson) lets us interpret view
modifications in a way that makes sense
CREATE TRIGGER delete_viewtrigger
INSTEAD OF DELETE ON monitor
FOR EACH ROW
BEGIN
UPDATE clazz SET monitor_id = NULL
WHERE clazz_id = OLD.clazz_id;
END;

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1.4. Materialized Views
• Results of a query can be stored
• This enables much more efficient access
• Problems
• Each time a base table changes, the materialized view may change
• Solutions
• Periodic reconstruction (REFRESH) of the materialized view
• Triggers (next lesson)

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2. Privileges and User Management in SQL
2.1. Privileges
2.2. Creating users
2.3. Granting privileges
2.4. Revoking privileges

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2.1. Privileges
• SELECT, INSERT, DELETE, UPDATE: privileges on table/view
• REFERENCES: privilege on a relation; the right to refer to that relation in an
integrity constraint
• USAGE: the right to use that element in one’s own declarations
• TRIGGER: privilege on a relation; the right to define triggers on that relation
• EXECUTE: the right to execute a piece of code, such as a procedure or function
• UNDER: the right to create subtypes of a given type

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2.2. Creating users
• Syntax: variations in different database platforms
• Creating an user in Oracle, MySQL:
CREATE USER username IDENTIFIED BY password;
• Creating an user in PostgreSQL:
CREATE USER username
[[WITH] options] PASSWORD password;
• Deleting:
DROP USER username [CASCADE];
• Example:
CREATE USER toto IDENTIFIED BY pwdtoto
2.3. Granting privileges
• Syntax:
GRANT <privilege list> ON <database element> TO <user list>
[WITH GRANT OPTION] ;
• <privilege list> : INSERT, SELECT, …, ALL PRIVILEGES
• <database element>: a table, a view
• WITH GRANT OPTION:
• the user may grant the privilege to other user
• Example:
GRANT SELECT, INSERT ON student TO tom WITH GRANT OPTION;
2.4. Revoking privileges
• Syntax:
REVOKE <privilege list> ON <database element> FROM <user list>
[CASCADE| RESTRICT] ;
• CASCADE : revoke any privileges that were granted only because of the
revoked privileges
• RESTRICT: the revoke statement cannot be executed if the revoked privileges
have been passed on to others
REVOKE GRANT OPTION FOR …..; : remove the grant option
• Example:
REVOKE INSERT ON student FROM tom CASCADE;
Summary
• View
• View definition
• View accessing
• Updatable view
• Materialized view
• Privileges and User Managements
• Privileges
• Creating user
• Granting / Revoking privileges
Thank you for
your attention!

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