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Protecting databases
F
ILEMAKER PRO HELP 460
Notes
• You’ll need to set additional options in FileMaker Server to authenticate users against an
external server. For more information, see the FileMaker
Server documentation.
• It’s possible for a file with External Server accounts to contain multiple accounts that could
authenticate a user. For example, a file could contain:
• Both a FileMaker-authenticated account and an account on the authentication server
with the same name.
• Two or more External Server accounts that contain the same member.
When a user opens a file, FileMaker Pro opens the file using the first matching account in the
authentication order. Any matching accounts that follow the first one are ignored. Therefore, it’s
important to set the authentication order for accounts when one or both of the above situations
exist. Otherwise, the wrong account may be used to access the file. For more information on
changing the authentication order, see
Viewing and reordering accounts.
Tip The authentication order is only an issue under specific circumstances: you must be
hosting files with FileMaker
Server, using an external authentication server, and have accounts
set up in such a way that there are multiple accounts that could authenticate particular users. If
you are only using FileMaker-authenticated accounts, authentication order is not a concern
because each account must have a unique name.
• If you work with shared database files that access ODBC data from Microsoft SQL Server,
you can configure Windows single sign-on authentication. See
Enabling ODBC data source
single sign-on (Windows only).
Tips for creating account names and passwords
The following are suggestions for creating account names and passwords that are valid and secure:
• Use only ASCII characters in passwords, such as a-z, A-Z, 0-9, and punctuation characters
like “!” and “%.” Passwords containing certain accented characters or non-Roman
characters such as Cyrillic or Japanese may not work, particularly in cross-platform
database solutions and files accessed via
FileMaker WebDirect.
• If the file is shared via Web Publishing, also limit account names to ASCII characters. Do
not use colons in account names and passwords of web-published files.
• Secure passwords are typically eight or more characters in length, and include at least one
numeric character.
• Passwords are less secure when they include strings that are easily guessed, such as
names (especially the names of family and pets), birth dates, anniversary dates, and, in
particular, the words password, default, master, admin, and similar standard terms.
• If possible, create a unique account for each user, and set up privilege sets to require
periodic password changes.
If it is not feasible to create a unique account for each user, then consider using group accounts
for users with more restrictive access, and individual accounts for users with less restrictive
access.
• If the file is shared via FileMaker WebDirect, consider creating more limited privilege sets for
users who are accessing the database via a web browser.
• Practice good management of known account names and passwords:
• Do not record account information in a master file or list, especially if it is not, in turn,
secured by a password and encryption or stored in a secure location.