What is the risk of "special distributed requests"

Question

I use users to log in to SQLServer (not sa) so I cannot execute the command "exec sp_configure" Ad Hoc Distributed Queries', 1 "

if always set to "Special Distributed Queries"? is there a risk or disadvantage?

Answer 1

Assuming you are migrating from SQL to SQL, IMO, you should try and use sp_addlinkedserver instead - this way your database administrator better looks at and controls access to cross-server data.

The only reason I might think why you want to use OPENROWSET is if you want direct access to a non-SQL data store, but you can consider other application-level technologies that might be preferable, for example. DTS / SSIS or custom application with two connection strings.

However, there seems to be a bug with the Ad Hoc Queries option .