Posted on Jul 2

How to Make SQL Deployments Safer with Script Risk Scoring

🚨 Why SQL Changes Can Be Dangerous
In many organizations — especially in finance, banking, and healthcare — database changes are just as critical as code deployments. Yet, SQL scripts are often:

Reviewed manually (if at all)

Pushed without validation

Prone to human error (e.g., DELETE FROM Customers)

These issues can lead to data loss, downtime, or even compliance violations.

✅ What Is Script Risk Scoring?
A Script Risk Score is a numeric value (typically between 0 and 100) that indicates how risky a SQL script is, based on specific patterns and practices.

For example:

SQL Pattern Detected Risk Points
TRUNCATE TABLE +40
DELETE without WHERE +30
Use of NOLOCK hint +10
Cursor usage +20
Temp table creation +5

The higher the score, the riskier the script.

🛠️ How to Implement Script Risk Scoring
You can build a lightweight risk analyzer using C# with the Microsoft.SqlServer.TransactSql.ScriptDom library.

csharp
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var parser = new TSql150Parser(false);
IList errors;
TSqlFragment fragment = parser.Parse(new StringReader(sqlText), out errors);

// Traverse the script to look for risky statements
var visitor = new RiskScoreVisitor();
fragment.Accept(visitor);

int riskScore = visitor.TotalScore;
Console.WriteLine($"Script Risk Score: {riskScore}");
👆 This code inspects a script and assigns a risk score based on its contents.

💡 Use Case: Integrate Risk Scoring into Your Deployment Flow
Here’s how a typical DevOps pipeline can use a risk score:

Dev pushes a SQL script to a Git repo

Pre-merge hook calculates script risk

If risk score > 50 → requires extra review

If risk score < 20 → auto-approved

Results stored and logged for audit purposes

🧩 SQL Change Guard: A Ready-Made Solution
If you want a plug-and-play system that:

Analyzes SQL scripts automatically

Assigns real-time risk scores

Displays visual warnings in the editor

Tracks approval status and execution history

Then check out 👉 SQL Change Guard