I'm doing something similar with a business application.
There's nothing stopping the user "accidentally" deleting the data on
the local machine either. If the password is held in the software then
it is insecure and can be easily cracked.
It would be better to store the data on a server and do an extract or
replicate to the local database, that way any loss of local data may not
be so disastrous.
At least the password could be stored on the server for later recovery
if necessary. Preferrably the password should not be stored anywhere on
the local machine
-Luan
David Van Couvering wrote:
What happens if a user accidentally deletes the password file that you
stored on their machine, or if there is a disk crash and the password
file is lost? Since you don't have any other copy of the
user/password, this means the data in the database is lost, something
that your users may not appreciate :)
Can't you accomplish the same goal by having a boot password (used
when you open the encrypted database) embedded in your application
code? I'm not a security expert, and I don't know if it's possible to
somehow 'extract' a password from a process in memory. For extra
security, you could update the password from time to time as part of
an application upgrade...
David
On 5/30/07, Stanley Styszynski <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Hello,
My name is Stanley and I'm working on application which will offer
opportunity to simulate the effects of changes in insulin and diet on
the
blood glucose profile of a diabetic patient. It will be a multiuser,
desktop
application with Apache Derby inside.
I would not like to grant any of the users the administrative
privileges.
Every user (added using special form in my application) should be
equal. No
one should be able to see or modify other users results or database
settings. I plan to dynamically create a root user (when my
application will
be launched for the first time). Root's user name and password will be
created dynamically (current time multiplied by random value and
SHA-256).
This data will be stored in separate text file(encrypted) and it's
content
will be read by the application to enable adding new users. I plan to
encrypt a database so only my application will be able to boot it.
Then, application itself, will be controlling access to the propriate
pieces
of data. It should be easy when we take into account that my
application is
using built-in driver (no network connection at all, database is
integrated
with application).
Is this solution good? Maybe there are others who encountered such a
"problem" and could share their knowledge?
Regards,
Stanley
