topic Re: Encode password on UNIX server in New SAS User

Encode password on UNIX server

katies — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 17:53:23 GMT

I want to encode my password for a database and use it in a libname statement on another library.

I'm using the code below, but I'm having trouble with the filepath portion. How do I write to a file that is not accessible to everyone on the server.

filename pwfile 'filepath';

proc pwencode in='password';
run;

Re: Encode password on UNIX server

Patrick — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 19:25:56 GMT

@katies

If it's SAS tables then security needs to be applied on OS level. You don't need a password but you just store the SAS tables (files) in a folder which is only readable by defined users/groups.

If it's a database then use an authentication domain defined in SAS Metadata and apply SAS metadata security on this domain so that that only defined users/groups can use it.

Re: Encode password on UNIX server

SASKiwi — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 23:06:43 GMT

If you leave out the filename the encrypted password is written to the SAS log where you can copy and paste it wherever you like.

Please bear in mind, that leaving even encrypted passwords in files is not secure. For example, anyone can copy this password into their own SAS programs and providing they also know the user name can access databases without unencrypting the password string.