File Hiding utility (dbfhide)

The File Hiding utility, dbfhide, allows you to add simple encryption to configuration files and initialization files to hide the contents of each file.

dbfhide original-configuration-file encrypted-configuration-file

The following table lists the available options for the dbfhide utility.

Configuration files are used by some utilities to hold command-line options. These options can contain a password. You can use the dbfhide utility to add simple encryption to configuration files and .ini files used by Sybase IQ and its utilities, and thereby obfuscate the contents of the file. The original file is not modified. Once you add simple encryption to a file, there is no way to remove it. To make changes to an obfuscated file, keep a copy of the original file that you can modify and obfuscate again.

1. Save the file with a different name.

   rename asaldap.ini asaldap.ini.org
   

   If you do not keep a copy of the original file, then you cannot modify the contents of the file once it has been obfuscated.

2. Obfuscate the file with the File Hiding utility, giving the obfuscated file the required file name:

   dbfhide asaldap.ini.org asaldap.ini
   

3. Protect the asaldap.ini.org file using file system or operating system protection, or store the file in a secure location.

   To make a change to the asaldap.ini file, edit the asaldap.ini.org file and repeat step 2.

   WARNING! You should not add simple encryption to the .odbc.ini system information file with the File Hiding utility (dbfhide) on UNIX unless you will only be using Sybase IQ data sources. If you plan to use other data sources, then obfuscating the contents of the .odbc.ini file may prevent other drivers from functioning properly.

   dbfhide does not accept the @data parameter to read in options from a configuration file.

Create a configuration file that starts the personal database server and the sample database. The file should set a cache of 10MB, and name this instance of the personal server “Elora”. The configuration file would be written as follows:

# Configuration file for server Elora -n Elora -c 10M path\asademo.db

Lines beginning with # are treated as comments.

Name the file sample.txt. To start the database using this configuration file, enter:

start_iq @sample.txt

Add simple encryption to the configuration.

dbfhide sample.txt encrypted_sample.txt

Use the encrypted_sample.txt file to start a database:

start_iq @encrypted_sample.txt

For more information about using configuration files, see the Installation and Configuration Guide.

The following command adds simple encryption to the asaldap.ini file:

dbfhide asaldap.ini encrypted_asaldap.ini