Back to controls

Ensure that 'TDE' is set to 'Enabled' for applicable database instances

### Description

Category

Controls

Medium

Applies to

Alibaba Cloud

Coverage

null controls, 1 queries

Asset types

1 covered

Overview

Description

Enable Transparent Data Encryption on every RDS instance.

Rationale

RDS Database transparent data encryption helps protect against the threat of malicious activity by performing real-time encryption and decryption of the database, associated backups, and log files at rest without requiring changes to the application.

References

  1. https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/doc-detail/33510.html

Additional Information

SQL Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2008R2, SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Edition, SQL Server 2016 Enterprise Edition, SQL Server 2017 Enterprise Edition and MySQL 5.6/5.7/8.0 all support TDE enablement. You have to log in with an Alibaba Cloud account rather than a RAM user account. KMS should be activated. If KMS is not activated, you will be prompted to activate it when attempting to enable TDE.

Remediation guidance

Via the management console

  1. Open the ApsaraDB RDS instance using the Open in Alibaba menu option
  2. Select the TDE tab
  3. On the TDE tab, find TDE Status and click the switch next to Disabled
  4. In the displayed dialog box, choose an automatically generated key or custom key, and click Confirm

Encrypt a table

For RDS for MySQL, connect to the instance and run the following command to encrypt tables.

alter table <tableName> engine=innodb, block_format=encrypted

For RDS for SQL Server, click Configure TDE, select the databases to encrypt, add them to the right, and click OK.

Decrypt data

To decrypt a MySQL table encrypted by TDE, run the following command:

alter table <tableName> engine=innodb, block_format=default

To decrypt an SQL Server table encrypted by TDE, click Configure TDE and move the database to the left.

Multiple Remediation Paths

SERVICE-WIDE (RECOMMENDED when many resources are affected): Apply organization/tenant-level guardrails and baseline policies for the entire platform.

ASSET-LEVEL: Fix only the affected resources identified by this control.

PREVENTIVE: Add preventive policy checks to CI/CD and periodic posture scans.

References for Service-Wide Patterns

  • Platform policy/governance and preventive control patterns should be applied tenant-wide where supported.

Query logic

These are the stored checks tied to this control.

'TDE' is set to 'Enabled' for applicable database instances

Connectors

Alibaba Cloud

Covered asset types

DBInstance

Expected check: eq []

dbInstances(where: { tdeStatus_NOT: "Enabled" }) {...AssetFragment}
Cyscale Logo
Cyscale is an agentless cloud-native application protection platform (CNAPP) that automates the contextual analysis of cloud misconfigurations, vulnerabilities, access, and data, to provide an accurate and actionable assessment of risk.

Stay connected

Receive new blog posts and product updates from Cyscale

By clicking Subscribe, I agree to Cyscale’s Privacy Policy


© 2026 Cyscale Limited

LinkedIn icon
Twitter icon
Facebook icon
crunch base icon
angel icon