What exactly is external procedure xp_cmdshell in sql server?

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What exactly is external procedure xp_cmdshell in sql server?
I wanna know why it's said to be dangerous!!

Posted 31-Dec-12 7:32am

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**Zoltán Zörgő** · Answer 1 · 2012-12-31T07:46:00

You can execute OS level commands on the server.
It is not dangerous on it's own. But if the a database or a server is not well protected, if there are leaks in the security settings, an attacker can access the operating system itself, and that's the danged.
So you need to be extremely careful. Here are some really good articles you should read in this topic:
- http://thinkingeek.com/2008/11/13/controlling-the-commands-executed-with-xp_cmdshell-on-sql-server-2005/[^]
- http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sqlsecurity/archive/2008/01/10/xp-cmdshell.aspx[^]
But if you can avoid using it.