Help with MS Access Security problem...

[hoialmen]

Hi All...

I have been asked to fix a problem with auser login account on an Access 2000 db that I didn't build. The problem was that the new user account was set up by the db architect shortly before he left the company and the user was never able to log in with this account. My assumption was the the password was entered in incorrectly because, when you tried logging in, it would tell you that the user name or password was invalid. So, because I didn't know what the old password was, I couldn't change it. The only option I was able to come up with was to delete the user account and recreate it. This was no problem except now, when I log in using the new account, the switchboard form comes up blank(?) - the header is the only thing that is visible. I've added the new user to ALL the security groups, including ADMIN, but still nothing. Does anybody know what would cause this?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

Nate

 

[thornmastr]

There are a few things here that concern me. First being, if this is a properly secured application assigning him to the Admin group should give him access to absolutely nothing.

But, given your particular problem, have you tried adding just a user, such as Joe Test, to whatever group represents your average user group and insuring 1) you can log on as Joe Test and 2) that you have normal access rights to the database. If you cannot, consider you might have a damaged mdw file.

Certainly not a complete answer but something that might help a bit.
Robert Berman
Data Base consultant
Vulcan Software Services
thornmastr@yahoo.com

 

[Guest_imported]

Log In as Admin User , delete the old account and see what was his WorkGroup was.Creat a new user account from scratch with a new passowrd and put this user in the same wrokgroup as he was before and see it should work. All this can be done only if you log in a admin.


Vikpraj

 

[Francescina]

Before you do anything, SAVE THE ORIGINAL MDW FILE FIRST!!!!
Otherwise you might loose access to the application completely.
Next you try to open the application with a virgin standard SYSTEM.MDW (and with >50% probability you can do whatever you want with the application.
If not:
a) you are in possession of the PUID codes: recreate the accounts
b) otherwise you might buy the MDW hacker tool and read all usernames and passwords from the MDW file

In either case you should have completely understood how the security system works, this means you need to read the MS White Paper on security as well as the security related articles in the ACCESS ONLINE ENCYCLOPEDIA at

http://www.unsoftwareag.com

.

 

[hoialmen]

Thank you all for the tips!

To Vikpraj...your suggestion is particularly interesting to me because I tried setting up the new user account using the SAME username after deleting the original account. When I tried adding the new user to the user group, I noticed that the original username was still a member of that group and it wouldn't allow me to add a user with the same username. So, is there a way to remove the original user account from the workgroup? The reason this is a concern is because the user is a VP and I have a feeling he will throw a fit if I tell him he is going to have to change his username (executives...).

Thanks again!

Nate

 

[RJFost]

There's a good article on Access 2002 security in the MSDN Library over at Microsoft's site; some of it should retrofit to Access 2000 without a lot of work.