Logins, SIDs, and Kerberos from First Principles, Part 7: Is Your Kerberos Still Using RC4?
got your connections onto Kerberos. This part asks an uncomfortable follow-up: encrypted with what? You probably have not thought about Kerberos encryption types recently. That is fair; the protocol mostly just works and has for…
Backup & Recovery from First Principles, Part 11: The Keys Nobody Backs Up - SMK, DMK, and a War Story
ended the series with a rule: key material is a third artifact class beside data backups and log backups, and it needs its own backup. That post demonstrated the certificate side. This bonus part climbs…
Backup & Recovery from First Principles, Part 10: Backup Encryption and TDE - The Gotchas That Cost You the Restore
Every part of this series so far assumed one thing: if you have the backup file, you can restore it. Encryption changes that deal. An encrypted backup (or any backup of a TDE database) is…
Is Your SQL Server Using RC4 for Kerberos? Here’s How to Find Out
You probably haven’t thought about Kerberos encryption types recently. That’s fair; the protocol mostly “just works” and has for decades. But CVE-2026-20833 changed the calculus. Microsoft disclosed a Kerberos information disclosure vulnerability in January 2026…