Board index » delphi » Configuring Databases so others won't be able to read them

Fred Jansma

Delphi Developer
Fri, 23 Feb 2001 03:00:00 GMT

Configuring Databases so others won't be able to read them

Nadav,

You have a couple of options:

- encrypt your database
- encrypt your information in a normal accessable database
- write your own storage format
- change extension of a MSAccess database. You can open a Access database
with an extension e.g. .ppp

In this way, people can still open your Access database, but they have to
figure out that your file is a Access database. Not a complete solution, but
very easy to do, and you have fooled most people.

Sincerely,

Fred Jansma.

Quote
Nadav Shamgar wrote in message <6sv8he$d4...@news.netvision.net.il>...
>I want to use a database for storing information of one of my programs. I
>decided to give up on dynamic records and stuff like that since Delphi
>Databases are much simple to use and handle.

 
Cobus Kruge

Delphi Developer
Fri, 23 Feb 2001 03:00:00 GMT

Re:Configuring Databases so others won't be able to read them


No real way that I know of.  Take a look at the database you're using.  If
possible, use one that provides access control in the form of a user name
and password.  Otherwise, use the record-approach.
Nadav Shamga

Delphi Developer
Sat, 24 Feb 2001 03:00:00 GMT

Re:Configuring Databases so others won't be able to read them


I want to use a database for storing information of one of my programs. I
decided to give up on dynamic records and stuff like that since Delphi
Databases are much simple to use and handle.

The problem, the databases created by delphi are written in a certain way
that, each Delphi programmer will be able to read from that database.
I want that only my program will be able to do that. How can I change the
database so that others won't be able to read it?

Numar

Delphi Developer
Sat, 24 Feb 2001 03:00:00 GMT

Re:Configuring Databases so others won't be able to read them


Quote
Nadav Shamgar wrote:

> I want to use a database for storing information of one of my programs. I
> decided to give up on dynamic records and stuff like that since Delphi
> Databases are much simple to use and handle.

> The problem, the databases created by delphi are written in a certain way
> that, each Delphi programmer will be able to read from that database.
> I want that only my program will be able to do that. How can I change the
> database so that others won't be able to read it?

you could encrypt the data, save it in the db, and then decrypt when
reading. (IDEA comes to my mind, or maybe Blowfish, or maybe a
combination of some of them). Performance might be hit,though.
don't use field names that can tell what could be inside (ie, instead of
ProdNo, x-1-a or sth like that). within your program you can use the
proper names if you want.
the whole point here is that you CAN'T have sth 100% secure... only to
make it so hard for sb. else to read it that it's not worth the effort.
best regards
--
Norberto Meijome (a) Numard, (a) Beto
* Contrary to popular belief, Unix is user friendly.
It just happens to be very selective about who it decides to make
friends with.
Mic

Delphi Developer
Sat, 24 Feb 2001 03:00:00 GMT

Re:Configuring Databases so others won't be able to read them


On Tue, 08 Sep 1998 01:25:26 +0000, Numard <num...@smartmedia.com.ar>
wrote:

Quote
>Nadav Shamgar wrote:

>> I want to use a database for storing information of one of my programs. I
>> decided to give up on dynamic records and stuff like that since Delphi
>> Databases are much simple to use and handle.

>> The problem, the databases created by delphi are written in a certain way
>> that, each Delphi programmer will be able to read from that database.
>> I want that only my program will be able to do that. How can I change the
>> database so that others won't be able to read it?
>you could encrypt the data, save it in the db, and then decrypt when
>reading. (IDEA comes to my mind, or maybe Blowfish, or maybe a
>combination of some of them). Performance might be hit,though.
>don't use field names that can tell what could be inside (ie, instead of
>ProdNo, x-1-a or sth like that). within your program you can use the
>proper names if you want.
>the whole point here is that you CAN'T have sth 100% secure... only to
>make it so hard for sb. else to read it that it's not worth the effort.
>best regards

I was thinking about the same problem. I figured the same, but... how
can one keep using the normal TDataset and TTable and the dataset
components, while using encryption. You'll need to interfere somewhere
in the storing/retrieving process to decode/encode, but.. when the
data is encoded, you'll use a BLOB storage method (oh, well, i
*think*), and on a TBolbfield there is no way to intercept the process
(or is there?).

I'm not very experienced so it's a bit of a mindcracker to me.

Mick.

PS. Would greatly appreciate response on this topic

Matthias Leis

Delphi Developer
Sat, 24 Feb 2001 03:00:00 GMT

Re:Configuring Databases so others won't be able to read them


Mick schrieb:

Quote

> [snip details on db encryption]

> I was thinking about the same problem. I figured the same, but... how
> can one keep using the normal TDataset and TTable and the dataset
> components, while using encryption. You'll need to interfere somewhere
> in the storing/retrieving process to decode/encode, but.. when the
> data is encoded, you'll use a BLOB storage method (oh, well, i
> *think*), and on a TBolbfield there is no way to intercept the process
> (or is there?).

> I'm not very experienced so it's a bit of a mindcracker to me.

You could use the Apollo components by Luxent (http://www.luxent.com)
which do have encryption (either record- or filewise) and which
integrate quite nicely into Delphi (you can still use TTable). There are
some problems you will have to work around and - most important - it's
actually an xBase-type database with special query requirements (you
can't use TQuery).

Before starting a project with Apollo (formerly known as SDE,
Successware Database Engine), you should follow some of their newsgroups
on news.luxent.com to see what kind of problems typically arise.

We have quite a few applications that were built using Apollo. The nice
thing is that you can run the programs without installing anything. You
just copy two DLL's into your application's directory and go ahead. Like
this, we built a (D1/16-bit-) CD-Rom application that runs on any
Windows platform directly from the CD that accesses a 150 MB database.

-- Matthias
___________________________________________________________
le...@codelab.ch             42              Matthias Leisi

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