Local Administrator Group permissions and SQLServer 2012

[d***@gmail.com]

Hi,
Does the Local Administrator Group on a Windows 2012 Server have access to SQL Server as Sysadmin? Even if you do not explicitly add it to the SQL Server as a login?

[Erland Sommarskog]

Post by d***@gmail.com
Does the Local Administrator Group on a Windows 2012 Server have access
to SQL Server as Sysadmin? Even if you do not explicitly add it to the
SQL Server as a login?

That depends. When you install SQL 2005, BUILTIN\Administrators is added
as a login by default, and this gives Windows admin access to SQL Server
as sysadmin. This does not apply to later versions of SQL Server, but if
the instance was upgraded from SQL 2005, BUILTIN\Administrators may be
there, or if it has been addede explicitly.

In any case, an admin can start SQL Server in single-user mode and in this
situation a Windows admin will have access as sysadmin.