Hello Philippe

> It seems that this version doesn't support password protection. This
> is a major problem since all end users would be able to read and even
> modify the content of the database. It would open the door to endless
> support issues.
>
> Can this embedded version be locked in any way so that only my code
> could access the data ? I've been using Access which password
> protects the local file but allows to provide the password from the
> code accessing the DB. Is there the same feature in FB ?

At the end of the day, the MS Access security is nothing to write home
about. Spend 10 seconds on google and you will have a tool to crack (I
mean recover) the password of an Access document.

Please note though that this is not simply an embedded restriction.
The only way you can secure your database against user tampering is to
not give them any access to the fdb file. If they can copy the fdb
file, they can just copy it to another server.

Embedded is really useful for tier databases etc which you may have
previously stored in for example csv files. You have the full power of
an ACID RDBMS without any installation and maintenance hassles. But it
is only a tool, and like all tools, if you use the wrong one for the
wrong task, it does not necessarily do a good job.

I don't know if you could install your database on an encrypted
volume, but even then you would have to provide your private key
somehow, which either the user knows (in which case it is pointless)
or you need to hide in your application (which is just obscurity).

Adam