[SunRescue] OT: MD5 or Crypt() hashing for access database

[Joshua D. Boyd]

On Tue, 6 Mar 2001, Chris Byrne wrote:

> I'm involved in a major project as the chrif security engineer, and lets
> jsut say I inherited a MAJOR catastrophe, from which I am uncertain if we
> can recover without scrapping the project and starting over, but as usual
> that isn't in the budget so I have to make do.
> 
> A major element of this project is a management database in acess, with
> a custom front end. We need to implement discretionary access control on
> the database, so they are using accesses built in access control (big mistake
> I know) and, heres the kicker, sotring passwords and account permission
> in a plaintext field in the database. 
> 
> I have already suggested we move to a more secure authentication method,
> but that was rejected for budgetary reasons, so we are stuck. SO now what
> I am looking for is an MD5 or crypt() type routine that can be called by
> access to hash the contents of the field. 
> 
> If this were a UNIX system I wouldn't be having  a problem here, there are
> lots of tools available to do this, but I have no idea where to get this
> kind of thing for NT, and the normal resources haven't been very helpful.

There should be a Crypt and or hash function in the cygwin dll's which can
then be called from Access' VBA.  If not, the version used on linux should
be standard C++ (except for maybe random number aquisition).  Then it can
be compiled to a DLL in VC++ (shudder.  I hate making DLLs but while C++
can be used directly from VB with some clever tricks, VBA has no such
capabilities).  If you need more help, email me off list and I can dig
around the source sitting on my home linux machine.

--
Joshua Boyd