I just tried it with firebird and was able to do the copy. so it has
the same security flaw.

Gary

--- In ib-support@y..., Martijn Tonies <martijn@b...> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Someone read the thread in interbase.general in the Borland
Newsgroups?
>
> Here's a part of the thread:
>
> =====
>
> "Craig Stuntz" <cstuntz@no_spam.vertexsoftware.com> schrieb im
Newsbeitrag
> news:MPG.16eef25d6847dc67989a69@n...
> > In article <3c851b07_1@dnews>, me@j... says...
> > >
> > > The fact that any user can create external tables, and thus has
in fact
> the
> > > same file access privileges that the IB service has, I a huge
security
> > > hole IMHO, unless anyone convinces me otherwise.
> >
> > It's certainly a huge hole if you keep your DB in WinNT\System32
or
> > if you give the account that runs IB administrative rights.
> >
> > Otherwise, all it gives you is the ability to create (but not run)
> > text files. Not a great thing, but manageable.
>
> I'm not sure who does not understand what the other one says.
>
> You can create an external table with the filename of the database
itself,
> containing only one single integer field.
> Copying all the rows, you get a copy of the DB file.
>
> It's not only that you can read random files (why do you say text
files?)
> -- sure, you can deny access to the IB service --
> you CAN read the DB file... simple as this.
>
> Thus, if there isn't anything I missed, any DB user can copy any DB
file
> -- cool, what is the whole security model about?
>
> Sorry for my bad English that seems not to be able to express my
concerns.
>
> For example:
> IB service has only read access to all IB folders and write access
to all
> files
> it really needs to access. Naturally, it has read/write access to
all DB
> files.
> Any DB user, without any privileges can log into DB
> "C:\my_secure_dbs\db1.gdb".
> Then execute:
> create table T external file "C:\my_secure_dbs\db1.gdb" (I
integer);
> select I from T;
> And has a copy of the whole DB file...
>
> What's wrong with this scenario...???
>
> The only solution I see is never to give a DB login to anyone,
> but it's probably not that difficult to take over an existing
connection
> or extract username/password with a debugger from executable.
>
> Hmm, please, try to understand what I have said,
> I don't see it's anything as trivial as your concerns, but I hope
that I'm
> wrong.
> =======
>
>
> I wonder, with FB, does the single file handle causes this problem
to be
> fixed?
>
> Martijn Tonies
> InterBase Workbench - the developer tool for InterBase and Firebird
> http://www.interbaseworkbench.com
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]