iAnywhere.com - Hiding the contents of files using the dbfhide command-line utility

Hiding the contents of files using the dbfhide command-line utility

Syntax

dbfhide original-configuration-file encrypted-configuration-file

Option	Description
original-configuration-file	Name of the original file.
encrypted-configuration-file	Name for the new obfuscated file.

Configuration files are used by some utilities to hold command-line options. These options may contain a password. You can use the File Hiding utility to add simple encryption to configuration files, as well as to .ini files used by Adaptive Server Anywhere and its utilities, and thereby obfuscate the contents of the file. The original file will not be modified. Once you add simple encryption to a file, there is no way to remove it. In order to make changes to an obfuscated file, you must keep a copy of the original file that you can modify and obfuscate again.

Hiding the contents of .ini files

In many cases, Adaptive Server Anywhere expects a .ini file to have a particular name. When you want to add simple encryption to a file whose name is important (such as asaldap.ini), you need to save a copy of the original file with a different name when you add simple encryption to the file. If you do not keep a copy of the original file, then you cannot modify the contents of the file once it has been obfuscated. The following steps explain how to add simple encryption to a .ini file.

To hide the contents of .ini files

Save the file with a different name.
```
rename asaldap.ini asaldap.ini.org
```
Obfuscate the file with the File Hiding utility, giving the obfuscated file the required file name:
```
dbfhide asaldap.ini.org asaldap.ini
```
Protect the asaldap.ini.org file using file system or operating system protection, or store the file in a secure location.

To make a change to the asaldap.ini file, edit the asaldap.ini.org file and repeat step 2.

Caution You should not add simple encryption to the .odbc.ini system information file with the File Hiding utility (dbfhide) on UNIX unless you will only be using Adaptive Server Anywhere data sources. If you plan to use other data sources (for example, for MobiLink synchronization), then obfuscating the contents of the .odbc.ini file may prevent other drivers from functioning properly.

This utility does not accept the @data parameter to read in options from a configuration file.

Examples

Create a configuration file that starts the personal database server and the sample database. It should set a cache of 10 Mb, and name this instance of the personal server Elora. The configuration file would be written as follows:

# Configuration file for server Elora
-n Elora
-c 10M
path\asademo.db

(Note that lines beginning with # are treated as comments.)

Name the file sample.txt. If you wanted to start the database using this configuration file, your command line would be:

dbeng9 @sample.txt

Now, add simple encryption to the configuration.

dbfhide sample.txt encrypted_sample.txt

Use the encrypted_sample.txt file to start a database.

dbsrv9 @encrypted_sample.txt

For more information about encryption, see Keeping Your Data Secure.

For more information about using configuration files, see Using configuration files to store server startup options.

The following command adds simple encryption to the asaldap.ini file:

dbfhide asaldap.ini encrypted_asaldap.ini

Hiding the contents of files using the dbfhide command-line utility

Syntax

Description

Hiding the contents of .ini files

Examples