By default, is the connection from PHP to SQLAnywhere secure or encrypted?

Question

There is a requirement to connect to a remote server, over the internet, to a SQL Anywhere database.

SQL Anywhere has a number of PHP extensions, which allow for PHP to connect to the server via IP and a specific port - however, is the connection secure?

Is there an option that needs to be set on either the SQL Anywhere server or PHP web server to enable some sort of encryption? Or do we need to create a VPN tunnel between the two servers to make sure it is safe to send data over the internet?

Answer 1

No, connections are unencrypted by default though passwords are never sent in the clear. You can use the ENCRYPTION connection parameter to indicate the type of encryption you want to use. TLS encryption is supported.

You don't say what version of SQL Anywhere you are using, but here are the v17 docs for the ENCRYPTION connection parameter. The usage of this parameter is pretty much the same going back to v10.

Disclaimer: I work for SAP in SQL Anywhere engineering.