Lock rptdesign file - security

I am trying to find out if it is possible to lock an rptdesign file.
The idea is to run a report as a service, but without being able to change the default parameters. I know I could just hide the parameter window but still the user could edit the rptdesign file and hard code new values.
Does anyone has any previous experience with this?
Is it possible to make an rptdesign file non-editable?

If you want to prevent users by modifying rptdesign file, you should do it on OS level to enable it only for certain users.

If you want to ensure that the report is not modified, you can add hidden field storing md5 sum from report file. I mean that this field can store md5sum from your report file on the disk. Then you can compare it with your original sum.
Anyway your problem is slightly different - you are expecting certain data from your customers and you want to be cheated by them. You can use the method with md5sum but it is rather the matter of trust to them here or any other possibility to access to their database than through the report (e.g. they can give you the direct access to the database or you can agree to store this data in your company, not theirs).
Let me know if this answer helps you better.

Related

How can I add a comment to a LabVIEW file using Python 3

I am trying to create a unique id and attach it to a LabVIEW file so that later I can read back that id and know I am looking at exactly the same file. I must be able to generate the id and read it back programmatically. The information must be hidden from the user accessing the file and persist across operating systems and storage mediums.
I was thinking of just adding it into the file 'comment' section, but it appears the Windows no longer supports file comments.
Any ideas?
I would suggest using the Set Tag method on the VI (with persistence) and saving multiple copies of the VI using the Save Instrument method, where each copy would then have its own unique value of the tag. Note that the method is defined as a scripting method, so you would probably need to enable scripting in the LV options to access it.
I don't think there's any API for enumerating tags, so there would be no way to find the value unless you know what the tag is called. Obviously, it's encoded somewhere in the VI file itself, and presumably it would be possible to extract a list of tags if you know the structure of the file, but that's not knowledge I would expect most students to have.
I'm not sure if you can call the set tag method from Python using an external connection to VI server, but certainly the LV code for this should be pretty simple - basically a for loop with ID generation, a couple of method calls and saving a CSV file so you can keep track of which ID belongs to which student. If you use existing IDs, you don't even need to generate and save the IDs.

User option in Access to select unique filepath for Excel source data

I am working off of a great solution created by #MattHall from 2011 to a question that I also shared about importing a dynamic range from Excel into Access.
Specific to that--though in general for future VBA's--my question is whether there is an additional way to be able to point to the Excel source file if it is moved without having to go into the VBA editor every time?
For my specific needs, I am trying to work on these Access and Excel files with others through a shared BOX that has a different file path for whoever is working on it.
USER 1 may be: C:\Users\USER1\Box Sync\filename.xlsx
USER 2 may be: C:\Users\USER2\Box Sync\filename.xlsx
...and so forth for any other users. I am curious how we can all work off this when the file path used in the VBA created and used by USER1 is not accessible by USER2? Could there be some code that allows for the every user to locate the file each time through their own filepath?
It would be a pain to do that but I also do not know a better option as we are not working off a shared server and this is unfortunately limited to Box share at the moment.
EDIT: If anyone could also suggest how to integrate their recommendation into the 'Dynamic Range' code in solution from #MattHall in the linked Stackoverflow, that would particularly helpful to my request.

How to add User Specific information in Exe File

I have a code on the server-side(application) that links with the client-side(application).
The user signs-up to download the exe(client-side application).
There must be a unique way to identify the user(client app exe) with the info got from sign-up.
So, one of the information must be attached to exe file during the download.
One of the ways I found is using "Portable Executable".
Is it possible to add string data to exe and later retrieve it?
Is there any other possible way to make the exe user-specific? Or is it possible to add the user information along with the downloaded exe?
Yes, it is potentially possible to modify the exe at runtime to put your own stream. You might put the User Specific information in an existing Resource prepared for this "update". This would be the easiest way to avoid to take care about changing other parameter like size, etc.. Another option would be to put the User Specific information in the overlay of the Exe.

Why does excel's content change when its password is modified?

I tested it by assigning an excel a password. This excel was kept in dropbox, and as I assigned a password to the excel, it was entirely downloaded on every comp that it was shared with. Is there a way that I assign the password and the whole file does not get modified? I am sure that it is not an issue with Dropbox as this is what happened with SugarSync as well.
Without deeper knowledge of the internals I still would say NO - Excel has to store your password for this file SOMEHOW, so I'll guess it will be encrypted and stored within your file, hence binary changing it.
Just so you can check this for yourself:
Make a new Workbook and save it.
Open it, just password protect it, and save it as another Workbook (like the first time)
Now compare those with any HEX or Binary-Comparing tool.
Password protection means that the file is encrypted. There is no point in password protecting a file if it is not encrypted. The only other way to prevent people from viewing a file without encrypting it is to restrict access to it. This can be accomplished by:
1) Modifying the permissions on your computer so that it can only be seen using your password protected account.
2) Not sharing the file with other dropbox users (or share it only with the people you want to see it).
Neither of these is a terribly good security method on it's own. File encryption is always more secure, ideally when used with the above.

Edit and modify index.dat windows file

In order to be able to speed up user logging times for our product we are trying to implement a preloaded user session scheme. In order to be able to migrate browsing preferences from the preloaded user to the real one we need to be able to edit the contents of the C:\Documents and Settings\User1\Cookies folder: cookie files + index.dat.
In order to achieve this we tried to replace all occurrences of “User1” with say “User2” for cookie files and index.dat. Since both user names have the same character length this change should no break the binary integrity of index.dat file. However after performing this change the cookies no longer work .. Any suggestion would be appreciated.
Editing index.dat seems hopless. The format has never been made public. Trying to reverse engineer it has only resulted in limited sucess: http://www.latenighthacking.com/projects/2003/reIndexDat/
However there are the Microsoft APIs: FindFirstUrlCacheEntry, FindNextUrlCacheEntry, InternetGetCookie, InternetSetCookie that can be used to export and import cookie data.

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