| Subject | Re: [firebird-support] Why is firebird on my computer? |
|---|---|
| Author | Helen Borrie |
| Post date | 2010-06-18T19:05:55Z |
At 04:05 AM 19/06/2010, you wrote:
Open Office comes with a proprietary database engine that is not Firebird, so at least that's one you can eliminate.
Your forensics could explore things like the date the Firebird engine's folders were created. The default install location on Windows is Program Files\Firebird\Firebird_something, which is referred to as Firebird's "root" location. The "Firebird_something" part would be 1_5, 2_0 or 2_1, depending on which version is installed. fbserver.exe is in the \bin directory under the root. It normally runs as a service.
The common convention is to name Firebird databases with the extension ".fdb". However, there are still quite a few legacy packages out there where the extension ".gdb" is used. These are only conventions: the file containing a Fb database can have *any* extension, including none at all.
It is common for databases in deployed apps to be located within the file structure of the application modules. In the root (amongst other things) you will find a file called "firebird.log". It is just a plain text file: opening and browsing that with Notepad or similar could yield some clues about where to look for that database and thus identify the software package that installed it, since error and info messages often contain the fully-qualified paths to databases.
Cheers,
./heLen
>i've just noticed fbserver.exe in my firewall information... don't understand why its there!As you have rightly deduced, the Firebird engine is deployed as a component of end-user applications. Any application that stores and retrieves data is a candidate. Some anti-virus packages use it to store virus definitions, for example. At least one of those music packages that pick up track-lists from the web or from local CDs uses it. A large mobile phone company in Europe (O2) uses it for its phone-synch app. Other apps out there using it probably number into six or seven figures.
>
>i have openofice.org installed although yet to use the database portion of it... is it from this? if not, i have no other databases other than a very old microsoft access on this computer and am a bit concerned! All replies appreciated.
Open Office comes with a proprietary database engine that is not Firebird, so at least that's one you can eliminate.
Your forensics could explore things like the date the Firebird engine's folders were created. The default install location on Windows is Program Files\Firebird\Firebird_something, which is referred to as Firebird's "root" location. The "Firebird_something" part would be 1_5, 2_0 or 2_1, depending on which version is installed. fbserver.exe is in the \bin directory under the root. It normally runs as a service.
The common convention is to name Firebird databases with the extension ".fdb". However, there are still quite a few legacy packages out there where the extension ".gdb" is used. These are only conventions: the file containing a Fb database can have *any* extension, including none at all.
It is common for databases in deployed apps to be located within the file structure of the application modules. In the root (amongst other things) you will find a file called "firebird.log". It is just a plain text file: opening and browsing that with Notepad or similar could yield some clues about where to look for that database and thus identify the software package that installed it, since error and info messages often contain the fully-qualified paths to databases.
Cheers,
./heLen