Can Not Secure Access Database

[Mike]

Hello ALL.... I have tried endlessly to secure a database using the
user level security. I have followed the security faq to the letter,
however I can still access the database from the default access
security "system.mdw" workgroup. No matter what I do it will NOT
secure. I have made sure all permissions (in my secured .MDW are
removed from the "users" group and have removed admins from the admin
user, however as soon as I switch back to the "system.mdw" group It
allows the "secure" (not) database to open and view/edit objects. I
have found the following paragraph in the security faq, tried it and
it still DOES NOT work. Please, I'm begging at this point..... Any
help would be appreciated. I dont claim to understand access security
as well as I should but come on now...... this is crazy....

Sec. Faq. Paragraph:

1. The Access 2000 Security Wizard removes permissions to the point
where they are not visible on the security menus, but testing has
revealed that in Access 2000 it is possible to open a database by
using the default workgroup information file regardless of the menu
settings. The cure for both versions of Access is to create a new,
empty database while logged on as a member of the Admins group and
import all of the objects from the secured database. You should take
this step before spending too much time securing objects because
Access considers imported objects to be "new" and loses the permission
information that was stored in the source database.

 

[Lynn Trapp]

Mike,
I realize that Access security can be a rather daunting task, but it will
work if you have truly followed all the steps. The first thing I would
suggest that you check out who is the owner of the database. If Admin is the
owner then you missed something along the way. On the Security page of my
website there is a simplified document that lists the 10 steps you need to
follow. You might try following that. Also, Joan Wild has a good simplified
version of it on her website -- www.jmwild.com.

 

[Guest]

Hi Lynn, Hi Mike

I was in this same desperate shape a few days ago. There were two things I
did in particular which may or may not have had something to do with my
database finally working. One thing I did was to import my database into a
fresh, new database after creating the users and groups; what I did can be
summarized in the following steps:

1. Create My Users and groups (with me being one of the users).

2. Created a blank database where I logged on as me (not as ADMIN).

3. imported the contents of my database into the blank database to create
the version of the database that I was going to secure.

Following these steps guarenteed that neither my databse nor any of its
objects were owned by the insideous ADMIN user.


The second thing I did was even stranger. When I had completed my security
settings, I ended the process by setting the "database" priviliges for the
ADMIN user ane USERS user group as follows:

1. I checked the run and run exclusive boxes and then I clicked on the
Apply button.

2. I then unchecked these same two boxes and again hit the Apply button.

I did this because the documentation that Joan Wild refered me to said that
ACCESS 2000 had a bug where under certain conditions (having to do with the
WIZARD), these privilges might appear unchecked in the security menus yet
still be some-how active. Even though I had ACCESS 2003, I tried forcing
these settings using the steps I just described (What did I have to lose?)
and afterwords my security worked. (This may or may not be shear coincidence,
but at that point I would have tried mumbling curses while shaking a rattle
made of human bones if I had had such a rattle or known any likely curses.)

If neither of these tricks works out and you find something that does ...
please share the wealth.

Phine Home

I don't know if this final step was the magic bullet that made things work
(or for that matter did anything at all), but it might be something to
suggest if somebody else runs into this problem.

 

[Guest]

I would like to add a new twist here, even though this is an old post. I have
been recently trying to secure my Access2002 db and was having exactly the
same problems stated in this post and also phone home's earlier post. I tried
the suggetion made by phone home, and coincedence or not, it worked for me
also. I would like to thank you all for your unselfishness in helping others
over difficult spots on our journey to become access gurus such as the mvp's.
That's not the twist however. Once I imported the database, to a new database
to tranfer ownership, One of my forms that runs some code when opened (it
opens a recordset based on the forms current record (employee) and populates
a section of the form with current safety training info. It does this by
building a SQL string to filter the recordset. setting part of the string to
the form's [EmployeeNo] control. In the old database file it worked fine, but
now it gives me a type mismatch error. I've used a breakpoint to halt the
code just after it builds the string, printed it to the immediate window, and
copy/pasted it into the SQL view of a query builder and the query worked
fine. but as code, it doesn't. Also of note, if I link to the new
(secured)database via the /WRKGRP switch and the .mdw file, I don't get this
problem. Only if I link directly to the .mdb file does this error manifest
itself. I've checked the types of the form as well as the table field and
they both match in type as well as size. Any ideas on why this is happening?
sorry for such a long post, but I wanted to give as much info as I could w/o
going totally overboard.
Thanks in advance!