Bypassing Login as Admin user

[Guest]

One of my users can't open the database, but if I add permission to the
"Admin" user, she can -- so I think her computer has some code that is
attempting to bypass the login screen and go directly to the database as
Admin user. She never gets the login screen when trying to open the database
-- but just gets a message that she doesn't have the necessary permissions to
open databse. I checked her workgroup file, and she IS connected to the
correct file. Is there such a thing as code that can be put on her computer
to bypass the login screen and go directly to the database via the Admin user
(if it had any permissions still attached to it)? If so, where do I find the
code to delete it.

 

['69 Camaro]

Hi, Janet.

I think her computer has some code that is
attempting to bypass the login screen and go directly to the database as
Admin user. She never gets the login screen when trying to open the database
-- but just gets a message that she doesn't have the necessary permissions to
open databse. I checked her workgroup file, and she IS connected to the
correct file.

You can easily determine which workgroup she is joined to after opening the
database. Press <CTRL><G> to open the VBEditor's Immediate window. In the
Immediate window, type:

?DBEngine.SystemDB

and then press the <ENTER> key, and she'll see which workgroup information
file she is joined to. You'll be surprised to find that it isn't your
secure workgroup.

So regardless of the workgroup she thinks she is currently joined to, she's
opening the database without your secured workgroup. This can easily be
done by using a shortcut that either uses the wrong workgroup information
file, or incorrectly opens the database without the path and file name of
the Access executable. For more information on using shortcuts to open
secure databases, please see the tip "How to open databases and only be
prompted for User ID and password for the secure databases" on the following
Web page:

http://www.Access.QBuilt.com/html/security.html

HTH.

Gunny

See http://www.QBuilt.com for all your database needs.
See http://www.Access.QBuilt.com for Microsoft Access tips.

(Please remove ZERO_SPAM from my reply E-mail address, so that a message
will be forwarded to me.)

 

[Guest]

Thank you so very much for this information. I am copying the links to refer
to, as well. The problem is that the login screen doesn't even come up on
her computer, but tries to open the database without even logging in, then
gets an error message that she doesn't have the necessary permissions to
open/run the database...which is why I figured there might be code on her
computer that was bypassing the login box, and attempting to login as Admin
(which can't happen because I have Admin set with no permissions). I
experimented and gave permission to the Admin only to open the database and
main menu screen, but no other permissions, then asked her to try and login.
When she clicked to open the database, it opened without showing the login
screen, and she was able to go to the main menu, but nothing there would work
(becauase I gave no further permissions). This is why I figured her computer
was bypassing login and opening as Admin.

So, if I set the permissions for Admin to only open database and main menu
(with no other permissions), can I still type Ctrl/G and get to the VB editor
to type ?DBEngine.SystemDB and Enter? Or will I get an error message saying I
don't have permission to do that?

Do you know why the Wrkgadm.exe file would show her as being connected to
the correct workgroup, even if she isn't? I am so stuck with this issue --
and no one else here seems to know what to do about it -- short of
reinstalling Windows on her computer. Any and all help is GREATLY
appreciated. THanks so much, Janet

 

[Guest]

One more question:if the workgroup adminstrator is set for the correct file,
but it's not using that file, how do we correct it?

 

[Rick Brandt]

One more question:if the workgroup adminstrator is set for the
correct file, but it's not using that file, how do we correct it?

You either specify a workgroup file as a command line argument or the one
defined in the Workgroup Administration utility is used. There is no third
circumstance to consider.

If the user is found to NOT be using the file indentified in the Workgroup
Administration utility after opening Access then they must have opened it
via a shortcut that specified a different one. Just fix the shortcut or
delete it.

 

[Guest]

Interesting development. I had to give them full Admin permissions
(temporarily) to open database on their workstation, and found they were
connected to a different mdw file than the one specified by database
workgroup admin. I followed the trail only to find the file + a 2nd
wrkgadm.exe file! The extra system.mdw they were connected to was located
at:
C:\Programs\Common~\System\System.mdw
The 2nd instance of wrkgadmn.exe was found at:
C:\PRograms\Microsoft Office\Office\wrkgadmn.exe

I first copied the correct mdw file over the system.mdw (above), and they
were now able to open the database via login screen. I also deleted their
desktop shortcut to the database and created a fresh one from the actual
database. All seemed well until I deleted the 2nd instance of wrkgadmn.exe.
When I did that, they suddenly no longer had any connections to any of the
network drives. The database is located on the network, so now they can't
open it or anything else on the network. When they try to open the database
they get a "system disk or network failure" error. Does this sound anything
like a viurs or foul play somewhere?

 

[Rick Brandt]

Interesting development. I had to give them full Admin permissions
(temporarily) to open database on their workstation, and found they
were connected to a different mdw file than the one specified by
database workgroup admin. I followed the trail only to find the file
+ a 2nd wrkgadm.exe file! The extra system.mdw they were connected
to was located at:
C:\Programs\Common~\System\System.mdw
The 2nd instance of wrkgadmn.exe was found at:
C:\PRograms\Microsoft Office\Office\wrkgadmn.exe

I first copied the correct mdw file over the system.mdw (above), and
they were now able to open the database via login screen. I also
deleted their desktop shortcut to the database and created a fresh
one from the actual database. All seemed well until I deleted the
2nd instance of wrkgadmn.exe. When I did that, they suddenly no
longer had any connections to any of the network drives. The
database is located on the network, so now they can't open it or
anything else on the network. When they try to open the database
they get a "system disk or network failure" error. Does this sound
anything like a viurs or foul play somewhere?

Sounds like they've installed multiple versions of Office. Each will have
its own default mdw defined.