Question

Hide server password

Asked by: Natchiket

Due to a recent 'crackdown' in IT security all Access databases which connect to company servers must not have server passwords embedded in the connection string of attached tabledefs and stored querydefs.  With regard to tabledefs this is straightforward as the tables can simply be re-attached without dbAttachSavePWD as part of the attributes property.

However, since querydefs don't have an attributes property this appears to be more problematic.  For stored querydefs it seems that the only solution is to set the connection string to the DSN (or at least leave out the password) and then open one querydef
to force the default Login prompt to appear.  Once the user has successfully applied the password Access caches it and then subsequent querydefs opened on the same DSN automatically have the password applied.

This raises a problem of automation control, because it would be nice to capture the password in an Access form and then supply it to the dialogue box automatically, however this raises the prospect of the dreaded sendkeys and what to do if the user supplies the wrong password.  Can anyone suggest either a neat solution or an unequivecal statement that only temporary querydefs can be used in this situation.

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Asked On
2009-04-06 at 06:49:02ID24298142
Tags

Micrsoft Access 2003

Topics

Microsoft Access Database

,

Access Coding/Macros

,

Access Forms

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Answers

 

by: NatchiketPosted on 2009-04-06 at 06:53:27ID: 24077270

I should qualify that, my reference to stored querydefs applies to stored passthrough querydefs

 

by: NatchiketPosted on 2009-04-06 at 07:49:53ID: 24077822

OK here's my working so far ... which *seems* to work for sybase with a DSN

Create a temporary querydef and open a recordset to validate the password.  If the password is valid then
instantiate any stored passthrough querydef (a nice simple one to be quick!)
use sendkeys to pass the password and an {enter} keystroke to the keyboard buffer
Open a recordset based on the querydef .... the ODBC password prompt briefly appears and autocompletes
voila ... all passthough querydefs work

a bit clunky ... any better ideas , anyone ?





 

by: cwood-wm-comPosted on 2009-04-09 at 09:08:33ID: 24108628

What I do is create an ADODB connection to the server, using the password, and then run queries. Each server database type requires a different connection string. The example in the snippet connects to an Access 2007 database but will not work with Access 2007. You will have to test it with Access 2003 as I do not have that version to validate the code.

Public Sub PasswordConnect()
'==========================================================
'  requires a reference to:
'    Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects 2.5(or later) Library
'==========================================================
    Dim cnn As ADODB.Connection
    Dim strDB As String, strDbPassword As String
    strDB = "\\Server\DB\myDatabase.mdb"
    strDbPassword = "myPassword"
    ' use an appropriate connection string
    ' for other connection strings see:
    ' http://www.connectionstrings.com/
    cnn.ConnectionString = "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;" & _
        "Data Source=" & strDB & ";Jet OLEDB:Database Password=" & strDbPassword
    ' open the connection to the server
    cnn.Open
    ' run a query
    DoCmd.OpenQuery "myQuery"
    ' close the server connection
    cnn.Close
    ' clean up
    Set cnn = Nothing
End Sub
                                              
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by: cwood-wm-comPosted on 2009-04-09 at 09:09:50ID: 24108645

Oops. The phrase "will not work with Access 2007" should have been "will not work with Access 2000."

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