Analysis Services Links to Objects should be disabled if not required.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-15204	DM6087-SQLServer9	SV-25468r1_rule	DCFA-1	Medium

Description
Analysis Services may make connections to external SQL Server instances. In some cases this may be required for the intended operation, however, where not required, this may introduce unnecessary risk where unauthorized external links may be made.

STIG	Date
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Instance Security Technical Implementation Guide	2015-06-16

Details

Check Text ( C-13795r1_chk )
If Analysis Services is not deployed on the local host, this check is Not a Finding. Note: To detect deployment, view Windows Services. If SQL Server Analysis Services ([instance name]) is not listed, then Analysis Services is not installed on this host. If the System Security Plan indicates Links to Other instances is required for operation, this check is Not a Finding. From the SQL Server Management Studio GUI: 1. Connect to the Analysis Services instance 2. Right click on the Analysis Services instance 3. Select Properties 4. View the value listed for Feature \ LinkToOtherInstanceEnabled If the value = 'true', this is a Finding. The LinkToOtherInstanceEnabled value may also be viewed in the Analysis Services configuration file, msmdsrv.ini under XML tag: [LinkToOtherInstanceEnabled] The configuration file may be found in the [install dir] \ MSSQL.[#] \ OLAP \ Config directory.

Check Text ( C-13795r1_chk )

If Analysis Services is not deployed on the local host, this check is Not a Finding.

Note: To detect deployment, view Windows Services. If SQL Server Analysis Services ([instance name]) is not listed, then Analysis Services is not installed on this host.

If the System Security Plan indicates Links to Other instances is required for operation, this check is Not a Finding.

From the SQL Server Management Studio GUI:

1. Connect to the Analysis Services instance
2. Right click on the Analysis Services instance
3. Select Properties
4. View the value listed for Feature \ LinkToOtherInstanceEnabled

If the value = 'true', this is a Finding.

The LinkToOtherInstanceEnabled value may also be viewed in the Analysis Services configuration file, msmdsrv.ini under XML tag:

[LinkToOtherInstanceEnabled]

The configuration file may be found in the [install dir] \ MSSQL.[#] \ OLAP \ Config directory.

Fix Text (F-14815r1_fix)
Set value for LinkToOtherInstanceEnabled to 'false'. From the SQL Server Management Studio GUI: 1. Connect to the Analysis Services instance 2. Right click on the Analysis Services instance 3. Select Properties 4. View the value listed for Feature \ LinkToOtherInstanceEnabled 5. Select value = 'false' 6. Click OK