Connection string problems using hexadecimal characters

28 Dec 2006 3:22 PM

Stephen K

I am using the SQL server client to connect from a Vb .net windows forms
application to a SQL server 2000 database. The user passwords are scrambled
usign an XOR function and they are converted to hex characters. Using VB 6
this all worked fine. Now under .Net the connection to the database fails. It
appears that there is a real problem with the password portion of the
connection string if it contains hexadecimal characters. That is if the
users password is only alpha characters the connection to sql server works,
but if it contains alpha and numerics the connection fails. Any ideas?

28 Dec 2006 4:04 PM

Rad [Visual C# MVP]

On Thu, 28 Dec 2006 07:22:00 -0800, Stephen K wrote:

> I am using the SQL server client to connect from a Vb .net windows forms
> application to a SQL server 2000 database. The user passwords are scrambled
> usign an XOR function and they are converted to hex characters. Using VB 6
> this all worked fine. Now under .Net the connection to the database fails. It
> appears that there is a real problem with the password portion of the
> connection string if it contains hexadecimal characters. That is if the
> users password is only alpha characters the connection to sql server works,
> but if it contains alpha and numerics the connection fails. Any ideas?

How have you specified the hexed password in the connection string? Have
you by any chance used a language specific hex identifier like &H for VB or
0x for C#?

--
Bits.Bytes
http://bytes.thinkersroom.com

29 Dec 2006 12:09 AM

Stephen K

Rad - Thank you for replying the code that sets the password string goes like
this

'XOR the text.
            For lnIdx = 1 To Len(sReved)
                nChar = Asc(Mid(sReved, lnIdx, 1))
                If nChar > 49 And nChar < 57 Then
                    nChar = nChar + 8
                End If
                nChar = nChar Xor &H3F
                If nChar = 0 Then nChar = 65
                sXORed = sXORed & Chr(nChar)
            Next

            ' If a ';' exists, only keep left of ';'
            lnSemicolonPos = InStr(sXORed, ";")
            If lnSemicolonPos <> 0 Then
                sXORed = Left(sXORed, lnSemicolonPos - 1)
            End If

Regards
Stephen

Show quote

"Rad [Visual C# MVP]" wrote:

> On Thu, 28 Dec 2006 07:22:00 -0800, Stephen K wrote:
>
> > I am using the SQL server client to connect from a Vb .net windows forms
> > application to a SQL server 2000 database. The user passwords are scrambled
> > usign an XOR function and they are converted to hex characters. Using VB 6
> > this all worked fine. Now under .Net the connection to the database fails. It
> > appears that there is a real problem with the password portion of the
> > connection string if it contains hexadecimal characters. That is if the
> > users password is only alpha characters the connection to sql server works,
> > but if it contains alpha and numerics the connection fails. Any ideas?
>
> How have you specified the hexed password in the connection string? Have
> you by any chance used a language specific hex identifier like &H for VB or
> 0x for C#?
>
> --
> Bits.Bytes
> http://bytes.thinkersroom.com
>

29 Dec 2006 12:45 AM

William (Bill) Vaughn

The only real difference in how ADO and ADO.NET handle the Connection object
is how the Password can be passed as a string to the Open method. Since
ADO.NET only accepts passwords in the Connection string, you'll have to
resolve the decryption at runtime and build the ConnectionString then.
Simply concatenate in the decoded password.

hth

--
____________________________________
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Microsoft MVP
INETA Speaker
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www.betav.com
Please reply only to the newsgroup so that others can benefit.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
__________________________________
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Show quote

"Stephen K" <Steph***@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:74DE47A2-6231-4852-A812-169420E972AF@microsoft.com...
> Rad - Thank you for replying the code that sets the password string goes
> like
> this
>
> 'XOR the text.
>            For lnIdx = 1 To Len(sReved)
>                nChar = Asc(Mid(sReved, lnIdx, 1))
>                If nChar > 49 And nChar < 57 Then
>                    nChar = nChar + 8
>                End If
>                nChar = nChar Xor &H3F
>                If nChar = 0 Then nChar = 65
>                sXORed = sXORed & Chr(nChar)
>            Next
>
>            ' If a ';' exists, only keep left of ';'
>            lnSemicolonPos = InStr(sXORed, ";")
>            If lnSemicolonPos <> 0 Then
>                sXORed = Left(sXORed, lnSemicolonPos - 1)
>            End If
>
> Regards
> Stephen
>
> "Rad [Visual C# MVP]" wrote:
>
>> On Thu, 28 Dec 2006 07:22:00 -0800, Stephen K wrote:
>>
>> > I am using the SQL server client to connect from a Vb .net windows
>> > forms
>> > application to a SQL server 2000 database. The user passwords are
>> > scrambled
>> > usign an XOR function and they are converted to hex characters. Using
>> > VB 6
>> > this all worked fine. Now under .Net the connection to the database
>> > fails. It
>> > appears that there is a real problem with the password portion of the
>> > connection string if it contains hexadecimal characters. That is if
>> > the
>> > users password is only alpha characters the connection to sql server
>> > works,
>> > but if it contains alpha and numerics the connection fails. Any ideas?
>>
>> How have you specified the hexed password in the connection string? Have
>> you by any chance used a language specific hex identifier like &H for VB
>> or
>> 0x for C#?
>>
>> --
>> Bits.Bytes
>> http://bytes.thinkersroom.com
>>