VISTA Plus for MPE Administrator's Guide

Security
7-21
Changing VISTA Database Passwords
When VISTA is started, the VISTA database is opened to retrieve configuration information. To
successfully open the database, the database passwords must be obtained and passed to the database
open routine. The passwords are stored in and retrieved from an external file named
VISTADB.DATA.NETBASE. Using an external file makes it possible for a customer to alter the
passwords without having to recompile VISTA programs. To change the default VISTA database
passwords, run the VISTA program with an entry point of CHGDBPASS.
You will be prompted to enter the new reader and writer passwords. After entering the reader and
writer passwords, you should also change the VISTA database passwords with a Turbo Image
database maintenance tool.
For example:
RUN VISTA,CHGDBPASS
Enter Database Reader Password: READER
Enter Database Writer Password: WRITER
Database passwords were successfully changed.
MPE Security
MPE security checking occurs before VISTA security checking. To read reports within a folder, you
must first pass MPE security checking. This might require you to alter security for accounts and
groups where folders are stored to provide non account and group users access to folder files.
If you run VISTA and folders which you are expecting to be displayed are missing, an MPE
security violation could be preventing you from viewing them. You will have to enable read security
access for accounts and groups where the folders are located. Reference the MPE file management
guides for assistance in setting MPE security attributes.
When a folder is created with the NBSpool VSAVE command, the security attributes (read, write,
lock, etc.) are set to CREATOR access. To remove CREATOR access, specify the RELEASE
option of the VSAVE command.
If you release a folder file, then users in other accounts can read the contents of a folder with MPE
tools such as FCOPY. This could potentially be a security problem so you will need to be aware of
how read security is set for accounts and groups where folder files reside. MPE security can be
enabled to prevent users logged into another account from reading folder files in a local account.