Open Report in Notepad to Reveal Connection Info

[tennisguy]

In Crystal 8.5 Pro (and perhaps earlier versions), you can open a *.rpt file in Windows Notepad, and in all of the jibberish that displays, you can find the field names used in the report, the directory path used to locate your database file or database server, login information (username & password -- this according to student), etc.

Would there be any way to mask this information or to have Crystal not display it in something as simple as a text document? The student was concerned that a hacker or someone could gain access to the network, locate Crystal report files in a shared folder on the network, open those reports in Notepad, and record usernames and passwords that belong to network users who created or last modified those Crystal report files stored in the shared folder.

In short, can we have Crystal not store any connection information so that it is not easily accessible in something as simple as a text editor? Using CR 8.5 Pro and Win 2000 Pro.

Any ideas would be welcomed. Thanks...

 

[IdoMillet]

AFAIK, the rpt file does store the User_ID info but never the Password info.

hth,
- Ido

CUT, Visual CUT, and DataLink Viewer:
view, e-mail, export, burst, distribute, and schedule Crystal Reports.

http://www.MilletSoftware.com

 

[synapsevampire]

I'm not saving any passwords in a .rpt...

As for finding out the names of connections/users/servers, that's difficult to avoid, but I suggest that you place reports in a secure environment, and give access to only those who you trust.

If a hacker has access to your network, they likely can find much more interesting info than what is contained in a Crystal Report by using various free hacker scripts.

If you're distributing reports for use by external code, then there are plenty of options.

-k