Besides a disgruntled employee, is there any reason Filemaker Pro 8.5
will not accept passwords?

Suddenly, none of our passwords work, including the admins.

We have a disgruntled employee who had admin access, but I'm trying to
find other reasons.

thanks

On 2009-11-24 14:48:51 -0800, Poppy <Boo-Pop@ringling.com> said:

> Besides a disgruntled employee, is there any reason Filemaker Pro 8.5
> will not accept passwords?
> 
> Suddenly, none of our passwords work, including the admins.
> 
> We have a disgruntled employee who had admin access, but I'm trying to
> find other reasons.

If you have corrupted files, you'd be getting a message that "this file 
is damaged and cannot be opened. The access privileges may have been 
tampered with."

If you have not had this message, then someone has changed the passwords.

If on Windows, hold down the Shift key while opening the file. On Mac, 
use the Option key. This will bring up the password dialog whether 
someone has put in an automated login with a lesser access password or 
not.

If none of your passwords work, try opening a backup copy. (you DO have 
backups on secure media, right?)  If the passwords work there, you know 
you're using the correct passwords.  You also know they've been changed.

In FM10, there is a Recover option that lets you bypass an opening 
script, as long as you know an admin password. It may not be an 
official FM password request that you're seeing. I can't tell that 
without seeing the files. It may be an opening script someone installed 
that is preventing you from getting to the admin access. You can 
download a demo version of FM10 from Filemaker.com and try that out.  
Don't use the recovered files, just use that option to diagnose the 
password problem.

If none of this helps, your most economical option is to clone the most 
recent backup files you *can* open, export the data from the current 
files (if you can get to it at all), and then import into the older 
file structure. Redo any file structure changes since that backup.

If your disgruntled employee proves to be the bad actor, I hope you 
haven't delivered his/her last check yet. It may be your only leverage. 
That, or the threat of arrest for industrial sabotage.  Denying access 
to  your data is theft. Treat it accordingly.
-- 
Lynn Allen
--
www.semiotics.com
Member FBA
FM 10 Certified Developer

On Nov 24, 2:48=A0pm, Poppy <Boo-...@ringling.com> wrote:
> Besides a disgruntled employee, is there any reason Filemaker Pro 8.5
> will not accept passwords?
>
> Suddenly, none of our passwords work, including the admins.
>
> We have a disgruntled employee who had admin access, but I'm trying to
> find other reasons.
>
> thanks

not sure what the cause is, but spend a few dollars on this and you
can reset the passwords back...

http://www.password-service.com/filemaker-password-recovery.php

In article 
<b90c2786-f2d7-4b1c-ba25-4c599a64e0b0@y10g2000prg.googlegroups.com>,
 Iain Pennington <iainpennington@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Nov 24, 2:48�pm, Poppy <Boo-...@ringling.com> wrote:
> > Besides a disgruntled employee, is there any reason Filemaker Pro 8.5
> > will not accept passwords?
> >
> > Suddenly, none of our passwords work, including the admins.
> >
> > We have a disgruntled employee who had admin access, but I'm trying to
> > find other reasons.
> >
> > thanks
> 
> not sure what the cause is, but spend a few dollars on this and you
> can reset the passwords back...
> 
> http://www.password-service.com/filemaker-password-recovery.php

Does this password recovery program actually work?

 If it does, what security is provided by FileMaker passwords?

On 2009-11-25 05:47:34 -0800, Iain Pennington <iainpennington@gmail.com> said:

> not sure what the cause is, but spend a few dollars on this and you
> can reset the passwords back...

Gah. Link snipped because I hope no one has followed this "advice."

Password "recovery" does not work in any version of .fp7 files. The 
password is a hash that cannot be recovered. What the program does is 
replace the hash segment with a hash of a known password, then tells 
you the replaced password.

However, there is NO assurance that this program properly amends the 
files so as not to introduce corruption that may not be immediately 
apparent. I would NOT trust that any such file would be appropriate for 
either production use or further development. Creeping corruption in 
the password bits can lead to completely unuseable files that cannot be 
opened by any means.

Use such programs ONLY for the purposes of getting data out of 
otherwise inaccessible files (that you own, but I didn't need to say 
that, did I?). Then trash the hacked files.   Import the recovered data 
into clones of files for which you *do* have passwords.
-- 
Lynn Allen
--
www.semiotics.com
Member FBA
FM 10 Certified Developer

In article
<b90c2786-f2d7-4b1c-ba25-4c599a64e0b0@y10g2000prg.googlegroups.com>,
Iain Pennington <iainpennington@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Nov 24, 2:48�pm, Poppy <Boo-...@ringling.com> wrote:
> > Besides a disgruntled employee, is there any reason Filemaker Pro 8.5
> > will not accept passwords?
> >
> > Suddenly, none of our passwords work, including the admins.
> >
> > We have a disgruntled employee who had admin access, but I'm trying to
> > find other reasons.
> >
> > thanks
> 
> not sure what the cause is, but spend a few dollars on this and you
> can reset the passwords back...
> 
> http://www.password-service.com/filemaker-password-recovery.php

Thanks lain, that was the app I was looking at but I wasn't sure it
would work. I appreciate your assurance.

b

In article <4b0c9c0e@news.bnb-lp.com>, Lynn Allen
<lynn@NOT-semiotics.com> wrote:

> On 2009-11-24 14:48:51 -0800, Poppy <Boo-Pop@ringling.com> said:
> 
> > Besides a disgruntled employee, is there any reason Filemaker Pro 8.5
> > will not accept passwords?
> > 
> > Suddenly, none of our passwords work, including the admins.
> > 
> > We have a disgruntled employee who had admin access, but I'm trying to
> > find other reasons.
> 
> If you have corrupted files, you'd be getting a message that "this file 
> is damaged and cannot be opened. The access privileges may have been 
> tampered with."
> 
> If you have not had this message, then someone has changed the passwords.
> 
> If on Windows, hold down the Shift key while opening the file. On Mac, 
> use the Option key. This will bring up the password dialog whether 
> someone has put in an automated login with a lesser access password or 
> not.
> 
> If none of your passwords work, try opening a backup copy. (you DO have 
> backups on secure media, right?)  If the passwords work there, you know 
> you're using the correct passwords.  You also know they've been changed.
> 
> In FM10, there is a Recover option that lets you bypass an opening 
> script, as long as you know an admin password. It may not be an 
> official FM password request that you're seeing. I can't tell that 
> without seeing the files. It may be an opening script someone installed 
> that is preventing you from getting to the admin access. You can 
> download a demo version of FM10 from Filemaker.com and try that out.  
> Don't use the recovered files, just use that option to diagnose the 
> password problem.
> 
> If none of this helps, your most economical option is to clone the most 
> recent backup files you *can* open, export the data from the current 
> files (if you can get to it at all), and then import into the older 
> file structure. Redo any file structure changes since that backup.
> 
> If your disgruntled employee proves to be the bad actor, I hope you 
> haven't delivered his/her last check yet. It may be your only leverage. 
> That, or the threat of arrest for industrial sabotage.  Denying access 
> to  your data is theft. Treat it accordingly.

Thanks Lynn, there's no indication the files are corrupted so I'll have
to go the backup route. And yes, i learned my lesson many years ago, we
actually have double backups, a week's worth on a USB drive and a
month's worth on an external server.

I appreciate the input. Our person has been gone for a few weeks but
the company has just gotten around to calling me. Go figure,

Thanks again,
b

On 2009-11-25 13:03:57 -0800, Poppy <Boo-Pop@ringling.com> said:

> Thanks lain, that was the app I was looking at but I wasn't sure it
> would work. I appreciate your assurance.

Please read my other response on the password "cracker." It is not a 
good approach if you have backups and can get the working data out in 
other ways.

Certainly do not use it on files you intend to put back into service 
and/or develop on further.
-- 
Lynn Allen
--
www.semiotics.com
Member FBA
FM 10 Certified Developer