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Suppose you want to examine the contents of an untrusted Access database.
It seems there should be a way to open it in Access with macros and VBA disabled.
Searching around the web, I've found several options which aren't quite right:
- Hold down Shift to suppress any Autoexec macro or Startup form. No good because (unbelievably) it can be bypassed.
- Set macro security level to Medium. The only options it gives you are Cancel and Open. There's no "open with scripting disabled".
- "Sandbox mode" ie "block unsafe expressions". No good, most scripts still run.
- KB article How to turn off Visual Basic for Applications when deploying Office 2003 or Office XP gives 5 options which are just variations on two methods:
- uninstall (or don't install) VBA. Too drastic. I still want to examine the code I might or might not want to run.
- Set a "VBAOff" registry value, equivalently through either Policy or
regedit
. This works for all Office applications except Access!
Does anyone have any other ideas? I'm using Access 2003.
If you really don't trust it, how about opening it in a virtual machine and just rollback a snapshot if it breaks something? – cularis – 2011-07-04T08:14:40.143
@cularis: a VM works, but it's a bit cumbersome. It seems like there should be a way to do what I am asking. – Hugh Allen – 2011-07-04T09:29:20.737
What's in it that you want to examine? If it's only data tables, create a new blank database and then link to the tables in the other database. This will be completely safe. If you need to look at the code, that's a different issue. What exactly are you afraid of? – David W. Fenton – 2011-07-06T01:39:15.557
Are you aware of the fact that you can turn back on the DisableBypassKey without opening the database in the Access UI? – David W. Fenton – 2011-07-06T01:40:09.690
@David W. Fenton: (you mean AllowBypassKey) that's a good idea which I hadn't thought of. It still takes effort though :( – Hugh Allen – 2011-07-06T13:41:17.733
Again, what is it that you're afraid of? – David W. Fenton – 2011-07-07T19:39:12.730