Description

It is recommended to enforce all incoming connections to SQL database instances to use SSL.

Rationale

SQL database connections, if successfully trapped (MITM), can reveal sensitive data like credentials, database queries, query outputs, and so on. For security, it is recommended to always use SSL encryption when connecting to your instance. This recommendation is applicable to PostgreSQL, MySQL generation 1, MySQL generation 2, and SQL Server 2017 instances.

Additional Information

By default, Settings: ipConfiguration has no authorizedNetworks set or configured. In that case, even if requireSSL is not set by default, which is equivalent to requireSSL:false, there is no risk as the instance cannot be accessed outside of the network, unless authorizedNetworks is configured. However, if the default for requireSSL is not updated to true, any authorizedNetworks created later on will not enforce SSL-only connections.

Impact

After enforcing SSL connections, the existing client will not be able to communicate with the SQL server, unless it is configured with appropriate client-certificates to communicate to the SQL database instance.

Default Value

By default, the parameter settings: ipConfiguration: requireSSL is not set, which is equivalent to requireSSL:false.

Remediation

From the console

1. Go to the Cloud SQL Instances page.
2. Click on an instance name to see its configuration overview.
3. In the left-side panel, select Connections.
4. In the SSL connections section, click Allow only SSL connections.
5. Under Configure SSL server certificates, click Create new certificate.
6. Under Configure SSL client certificates, click Create a client certificate.
7. Follow the instructions shown to learn how to connect to your instance.

From the command line

To enforce SSL encryption for an instance, run the command:

gcloud sql instances patch <INSTANCE_NAME> --require-ssl

Note: A restart is required for type MySQL Generation 1 Instances (backendType: FIRST_GEN) for this configuration to go into effect.

References

1. http://cloud.google.com/sql/docs/postgres/configure-ssl-instance/