[How To] Secure MSSQL on Linux: Configure Localhost-Only Connections

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Step 1: Open the mssql.conf file
• Step 2: Configure MSSQL to listen to localhost only
• Step 3: Restart the SQL Server service
• Conclusion

Introduction

Securing your MSSQL installation on Linux is crucial to protect your sensitive data from unauthorized access. In this tutorial, we will show you how to configure MSSQL to only listen to localhost connections and disable remote access.

Step 1: Open the mssql.conf file

The first step is to open the mssql.conf file in a text editor. This file is located in /var/opt/mssql/ on your Linux system.

sudo nano /var/opt/mssql/mssql.conf

Step 2: Configure MSSQL to listen to localhost only

To configure MSSQL to only listen to localhost connections, find the “network” section and add the following line:

ipaddress = 127.0.0.1

This will restrict MSSQL to only listen for connections on the local host.

Step 3: Restart the SQL Server service

After editing the mssql.conf file, you need to restart the SQL Server service for the changes to take effect:

sudo systemctl restart mssql-server.service

Conclusion

By following the steps outlined in this tutorial, you have successfully configured MSSQL to only listen to localhost connections and disabled remote access. This will greatly improve the security of your MSSQL installation on Linux and protect your sensitive data from unauthorized access.