How to protect fields for passwords?

[Mehdi Parhizgar]

how can i have a password in some fields in a access file,that other persons can't access those fields?

[sierra7]

Hi,
If the password is held in Access then a skilled user will alway be able to get in but some simple step are;
Stop users from seeing the Database Window. This can be done in the Start-up options in Access 2003 but is more complicated in 2010.(Google 'Access 2010 user interface' for Microsoft's full description)
Keep passwords in a none-obvious tablename (i.e not Passwords!). Right click the table and set it's properties to Hidden. But you must also go into settings and uncheck 'Display Hidden objects'. In Access 2003 Tools >Options >View. In Access 2010 File >Options >Current Database >Navigation Options >Display Options.
A further trick is to also uncheck 'Display System Objects' and prefix the table name with 'MSys'
You can also make life difficult for an intruder by checking their Network ID (Windows login name) and check names match, or exclude them or whatever.
S7

[NeoPa]

S7:
You can also make life difficult for an intruder by checking their Network ID (Windows login name) and check names match, or exclude them or whatever.

That's very good advice and I would recommend this approach wherever possible.

However, if you have reasons why this is not appropriate for you, then the trick is to store your passwords in encrypted form (See AES Encryption Algorithm for VBA and VBScript, RC4 Encryption Algorithm for VBA and VBScript &/or SHA2 Cryptographic Hash Algorithm for VBA and VBScript).

Whenever the password is tested the entered value should be encrypted first and then checked against the data. It then becomes more important that your encryption algorithm is not too easily accessible to the common user of your database, particularly if it's an associative algorithm (where the same algorithm reverses the encrypted value to its original form).