It's not password protecting but what about using BSAVE/BLOAD to save and load the data files? That way it's stored in binary so you can't just open it up in a text editor to see the contents and it's also faster than regular reading/writing to text files using the old "OPEN filename for INPUT AS #1..." as you can load the whole file into an array when you BLOAD.
I guess you could add another layer of obfuscation by doing a ROT13 type idea like Burger's first suggestion on top of BSAVE/BLOAD.
Another idea is still use BSAVE/BLOAD but instead of hard coding the ROT number, base the ROT encrypt/decrypt on the password provided by the user. That way you don't actually store any password, but it's still the key to unscramble the data in the data file.
Here's a quick example I threw together that works.. though with any home grown encryption, it's not really secure.The program takes the data string and adds the password key to each character. Then saves it using bsave and clears the memory. After that, it loads the data back into memory using bload and attempts to undo the scramble using the 2nd prompted for password.
On success, it displays the unscrambled string. On failures, it will either display nothing if the calculated integer value is too large or small to be represented as ASCII or potentially garbage characters based on a wrong calculated offset.
Example successful output:Example of wrong decrypt password:What it looks like if you try to view contents of data.dat outsite of bload/bsave:
I guess you could add another layer of obfuscation by doing a ROT13 type idea like Burger's first suggestion on top of BSAVE/BLOAD.
Another idea is still use BSAVE/BLOAD but instead of hard coding the ROT number, base the ROT encrypt/decrypt on the password provided by the user. That way you don't actually store any password, but it's still the key to unscramble the data in the data file.
Here's a quick example I threw together that works.. though with any home grown encryption, it's not really secure.
Code:
DECLARE SUB loadEncDataFile (fileName AS STRING)DECLARE SUB saveEncDataFile (fileName AS STRING)DECLARE SUB rotData (dataStr AS STRING, cipherKey AS INTEGER)DECLARE FUNCTION getKey% (password AS STRING)DECLARE FUNCTION unrotData$ (cipherKey AS INTEGER)CLSDIM SHARED encData(1 TO 512) AS INTEGERdataStr$ = "This is a data string and it is currently not scrambled."PRINT "DATA: "; dataStr$INPUT "Enter a password: ", password$cipherKey% = getKey%(password$)CALL rotData(dataStr$, cipherKey%)CALL saveEncDataFile("data.dat")PRINT "Clearing memory..."CLEARCALL loadEncDataFile("data.dat")INPUT "Enter password to decode: ", password$cipherKey% = getKey%(password$)finalData$ = unrotData$(cipherKey%)PRINT "Decoded: "; finalData$ENDFUNCTION getKey% (password AS STRING) cipherKey% = 0 FOR i% = 1 TO LEN(password) char$ = MID$(password, i%, 1) cipherKey% = cipherKey% + ASC(char$) * i% NEXT i% PRINT "Cipher key: "; cipherKey% getKey% = cipherKey%END FUNCTIONSUB loadEncDataFile (fileName AS STRING) DEF SEG = VARSEG(encData(1)) BLOAD fileName, VARPTR(encData(1)) DEF SEG PRINT "Loaded file: "; fileNameEND SUBSUB rotData (dataStr AS STRING, cipherKey AS INTEGER) FOR i% = 1 TO LEN(dataStr) IF i% < UBOUND(encData) THEN rotChar% = ASC(MID$(dataStr, i%, 1)) + cipherKey encData(i%) = rotChar% END IF NEXT i%END SUBSUB saveEncDataFile (fileName AS STRING) bytes% = LEN(encData(1)) * UBOUND(encData) + 1 DEF SEG = VARSEG(encData(1)) BSAVE fileName, VARPTR(encData(1)), bytes% DEF SEG PRINT "Saved file: "; fileNameEND SUBFUNCTION unrotData$ (cipherKey AS INTEGER) outData$ = "" FOR i% = 1 TO UBOUND(encData) charVal% = encData(i%) - cipherKey IF charVal% > 0 AND charVal% < 255 THEN char$ = CHR$(charVal%) outData$ = outData$ + char$ END IF NEXT i% unrotData$ = outData$END FUNCTIONOn success, it displays the unscrambled string. On failures, it will either display nothing if the calculated integer value is too large or small to be represented as ASCII or potentially garbage characters based on a wrong calculated offset.
Example successful output:
Code:
DATA: This is a data string and it is currently not scrambled.Enter a password: passwordCipher key: 3970Saved file: data.datClearing memory...Loaded file: data.datEnter password to decode: passwordCipher key: 3970Decoded: This is a data string and it is currently not scrambled.Code:
DATA: This is a data string and it is currently not scrambled.Enter a password: passwordCipher key: 3970Saved file: data.datClearing memory...Loaded file: data.datEnter password to decode: wrongCipher key: 1635Decoded: That looks Amazing! Eric
Statistics: Posted by Anthony.R.Brown — Tue May 25, 2021 2:52 am
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I guess you could add another layer of obfuscation by doing a ROT13 type idea like Burger's first suggestion on top of BSAVE/BLOAD.
Another idea is still use BSAVE/BLOAD but instead of hard coding the ROT number, base the ROT encrypt/decrypt on the password provided by the user. That way you don't actually store any password, but it's still the key to unscramble the data in the data file.
Here's a quick example I threw together that works.. though with any home grown encryption, it's not really secure.
Code:
DECLARE SUB loadEncDataFile (fileName AS STRING)DECLARE SUB saveEncDataFile (fileName AS STRING)DECLARE SUB rotData (dataStr AS STRING, cipherKey AS INTEGER)DECLARE FUNCTION getKey% (password AS STRING)DECLARE FUNCTION unrotData$ (cipherKey AS INTEGER)CLSDIM SHARED encData(1 TO 512) AS INTEGERdataStr$ = "This is a data string and it is currently not scrambled."PRINT "DATA: "; dataStr$INPUT "Enter a password: ", password$cipherKey% = getKey%(password$)CALL rotData(dataStr$, cipherKey%)CALL saveEncDataFile("data.dat")PRINT "Clearing memory..."CLEARCALL loadEncDataFile("data.dat")INPUT "Enter password to decode: ", password$cipherKey% = getKey%(password$)finalData$ = unrotData$(cipherKey%)PRINT "Decoded: "; finalData$ENDFUNCTION getKey% (password AS STRING) cipherKey% = 0 FOR i% = 1 TO LEN(password) char$ = MID$(password, i%, 1) cipherKey% = cipherKey% + ASC(char$) * i% NEXT i% PRINT "Cipher key: "; cipherKey% getKey% = cipherKey%END FUNCTIONSUB loadEncDataFile (fileName AS STRING) DEF SEG = VARSEG(encData(1)) BLOAD fileName, VARPTR(encData(1)) DEF SEG PRINT "Loaded file: "; fileNameEND SUBSUB rotData (dataStr AS STRING, cipherKey AS INTEGER) FOR i% = 1 TO LEN(dataStr) IF i% < UBOUND(encData) THEN rotChar% = ASC(MID$(dataStr, i%, 1)) + cipherKey encData(i%) = rotChar% END IF NEXT i%END SUBSUB saveEncDataFile (fileName AS STRING) bytes% = LEN(encData(1)) * UBOUND(encData) + 1 DEF SEG = VARSEG(encData(1)) BSAVE fileName, VARPTR(encData(1)), bytes% DEF SEG PRINT "Saved file: "; fileNameEND SUBFUNCTION unrotData$ (cipherKey AS INTEGER) outData$ = "" FOR i% = 1 TO UBOUND(encData) charVal% = encData(i%) - cipherKey IF charVal% > 0 AND charVal% < 255 THEN char$ = CHR$(charVal%) outData$ = outData$ + char$ END IF NEXT i% unrotData$ = outData$END FUNCTIONOn success, it displays the unscrambled string. On failures, it will either display nothing if the calculated integer value is too large or small to be represented as ASCII or potentially garbage characters based on a wrong calculated offset.
Example successful output:
Code:
DATA: This is a data string and it is currently not scrambled.Enter a password: passwordCipher key: 3970Saved file: data.datClearing memory...Loaded file: data.datEnter password to decode: passwordCipher key: 3970Decoded: This is a data string and it is currently not scrambled.Code:
DATA: This is a data string and it is currently not scrambled.Enter a password: passwordCipher key: 3970Saved file: data.datClearing memory...Loaded file: data.datEnter password to decode: wrongCipher key: 1635Decoded: Statistics: Posted by Erik — Tue Feb 23, 2021 12:23 am
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You could rewrite the file shifting the text to another ASCII symbol if it is not something critical. I did that for a game I made by adding 30 to the ASC value into CHR$ and printing it into the file so a user would not cheat with famous quotes in a Crypto game.
Another way to do it is to actually have the program hold the DATA and have your program create the text file when run, but that may slow the program down if the data is large. Qbasic in DOS can write new data to the end of your program too...
Another way to do it is to actually have the program hold the DATA and have your program create the text file when run, but that may slow the program down if the data is large. Qbasic in DOS can write new data to the end of your program too...
Hi burger2227
It would be a really great solution if it was possible as you say "Another way to do it is to actually have the program hold the DATA and have your program create the text file when run" :)
And as you mentioned it may Slow the program down :( which I imagine it would and the program I am talking about needs to be as fast as possible! as it would be reading and writing to thousands of lines of DATA. Maybe if the DATA could be compressed it might work faster ?
A.R.B :)
Statistics: Posted by Anthony.R.Brown — Sat Feb 20, 2021 8:59 am
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Another way to do it is to actually have the program hold the DATA and have your program create the text file when run, but that may slow the program down if the data is large. Qbasic in DOS can write new data to the end of your program too...
Statistics: Posted by burger2227 — Tue Feb 16, 2021 5:53 pm
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I would like to do this to protect the External DATA and of course it has to also be protected from other ways of accessing the File ?
A.R.B :)
Statistics: Posted by Anthony.R.Brown — Tue Feb 09, 2021 9:52 am
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