In a case where I'm not sure how many columns Im going to use should I just
use
select * from table1
or
select col1, col2, col3, col4... from table1

Is there any disadvantage for using select * in terms of performance or
security?

Thanks,
Howard

The Best Practice is to specify only those columns you actually use.  This
will give the optimizer more flexibility, such as choosing covering
non-clustered indexes, and also reduce network bandwidth requirements.  The
column list technique also provides a more well-defined application
interface that doesn't change when columns are added to tables.

From a security perspective, a column list provides vertical partitioning so
that data is selectively exposed.

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