posted
I'm not a computer engineer, nor am I an IT person, otherwise I wouldn't have made the mistake in the first place.
Basically what happened, is that a team of three of us from my company went down to southern IL to secure our intellectual property data, because the rubber processing plant we have owned for 50 years is being sold off.
I took an old beater laptop computer with me. The screen died. So I had to do all my work off of the computer of someone who worked there.
I saved an access database from that computer to a flash drive. Opened the database from the flash drive, so everything was hunky dory... I thought. Couldn't cross check it on the beater laptop or I would have and I didn't test it on a computer external to their network. Apparently they made the database, so that it looks for network permissions before it opens. Therefore we can't open it, even though it is legally ours.
I'm working from a couple different angles. If I can get the guy down there to do a full "export" rather than the copy and paste that I did, we should be able to get the data. Also may be one IT guy up here that can still log onto the other network. However, if both of these routes fall through, I'm looking for any info on how to hack an access database. We can see that the tables exist, but it locks us out of all data.
posted
open it with a hex editor? *shrug* works with games. Googling it may also work but most hacker websites may actually give you various viruses so not a good idea.
Posts: 1567 | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
Yeah, if I hack it, I have permission to do so, however some of the hacks I'll have to do on my home computer, because the programs aren't actually legal for us to have here...
posted
If I understand the problem, this Access database uses the security model built into Access, in which the program looks for a workgroup security file (often saved to the network or encoded in a shortcut) in order to grant various rights to the person viewing the database. You copied the database, but did NOT copy the workgroup security file and consequently cannot administrate the database. Is that right?
If that's the case, the easiest way for you to get around this issue would be to request a copy of their *.MDW file; you could then point to the copy using a custom shortcut when opening the database. You could also replicate the MDW if you knew EXACTLY the information they used to create it (including the PID), but that's likely to be harder than just getting a copy of the file in the first place.
As far as I know, there is no way to decrypt an Access database secured in this fashion with a functional MDW.
posted
Well the plot has thickened. Even though the file I saved was a couple megs and I thought it was large enough to include all the data, it may have just been really slick front end.
The IT guru thinks all the actual data was held on their server itself, quite possibly in Oracle and not even in Access. (one of the errors he managed to get, popped up a pathname) He used to have the permissions to access their servers, but no longer does, as a result of the sale (which is closing the end of the month.. so our time is limited.. to get this data, even though we have full legal rights to it)
I'm kind of relieved that it was this non trivial. Even if I'd done an "export database" if it is locked up like they think it is, I still wouldn't have gotten the actual data.
posted
*nod* A 2MB Access database is tiny. It's highly unlikely that you've got much data in any DB that size. If that's the case, and if security isn't actually your issue, you should be able to tell which backend DB it's trying to contact without too much difficulty based on the filenames given in the error.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
yeah, well another database I had copied was about the same size. However, in hindsight, I realize that the comparison database probably actually had far less data in it than the other one.
All told I copied what I thought were 3 databases to my flash drive from what I thought was the same S:// drive on the server. 2 of the three open and run fine, this is the only one that doesn't.
posted
If the original DB didn't have any links to data outside of Access, you might (if the DB is small enough) be able to have someone zip/compress the Access DB and email it to you.
Posts: 1256 | Registered: May 2005
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posted
Access applications are often built with the front end in one file and the data in linked tables in another Access file. If this is the case, then the MDW file would help. However, you probably want it wither way, because there is very likely business logic in the front end file that will be useful or necessary in interpreting the data.
If there are technical problems, bring the lawyers up to date so your company's rights can be protected while you figure out the technical stuff.
Oracle can be dumped easily to a text file that will recreate the database exactly. You'll likely need shell access to the server to do this.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
YAY! Problem resolved... well I'll be even happier once I get the data CD they are FedExing tomorrow. They burned it straight from their backend database. Their main IT guy was out while we were actually down there, and tried to explain what was necessary to his substitute, but that guy didn't get it and so it didn't make it down to me while we were there.
posted
Very cool. I have a friend who works for a data security firm. A large part of their business is electronic discovery - ripping copies of hard drives, reading overwritten files, descending en masse on defendants and seizing backup tapes.
I'm glad none of that's necessary here. Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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Yes, by the time I read this thread, you had a solution. But that was my first gut feeling -- was that you had just copied a front end that was tied to data somewhere else on a server, so it was looking for that link that no longer existed.
posted
Banna, I'm glad you've got things working out. But if you hit any more snags and need help with the Access end of things, email me directly and I'll send you to my brother, who's an Access MVP and alpha geek. He's actually the Access geek that all the other Access geeks turn to when they need help. Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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