How to disable SQL Server Management Studio for a user

Question

Is there a way to prevent users from getting into SQL Server Management Studio so that they can\'t just edit table rows manually? They still need to access the tables by ru

Answer 1

You can use the DENY VIEW ANY DATABASE command for the particular user(s). This is a new feature available in SQL Server 2008.

It prevents the user from seeing the system catalog (sys.databases, sys.sysdatabases, etc.) and therefore makes the DB invisible to them in SQL Management Studio (SSMS).

Run this command from the Master Database:

DENY VIEW ANY DATABASE TO 'loginName'

The user is still able to access the database through your application. However, if they log in through SSMS, your database will not show up in the list of databases and if they open a query window, your database will not appear in the dropdown.

However, this is not fool-proof. If the user is smart enough to run the Query Command:

USE 

Then they will see the database in the Query Analyzer.

Since this solution is taking you 90% there, I would give the database some obscure name not let the users know the name of the database.