Security violation ?

[DonH]

File Maker server 3.0 did an "unexpected shutdown". All attempts to bring the system back up failed. FM Server would start but the files would not open. So I tried to open the primary file with the FM3.0 editor and rec'd this alert box "The access privileges in this file have been damaged or tampered with"

LUCKILY our daily backup had run about an hour before this and restoring the backup returned the application to service.

Now, I have to know, what caused this. Anybody have any ideas? Did somebody really tamper with the file or is this just another FM bugga boo? Anyway to tell? Can I somehow recover the damaged file?

[BobWeaver]

The part of the file that contains the password information became damaged during the unexpected shutdown. When Filemaker opens a file, it calculates a checksum on the password privileges data block and compares it with the checksum that is stored in the file. If they don't agree, Filemaker will assume that someone may have tampered with it (ie, tried to alter passwords or password privileges) and won't open the file, even if there is no damage to any other part of the file.

In your case, this was just part of the file damage, and was not likely caused by anyone doing anything malicious.

[DonH]

So then, how do I recover from it? I don't really have to since I just restored the backup and it worked, but for future reference is there any way, other than paying people, to recover.

And thank you to everyone who sent me email offering to fix the problem for pay. Like I said, this was corrected by using the backup and so it is not critical. But I will keep your emails if it ever DOES become critical.

[BobWeaver]

Unfortunately, there is nothing in Filemaker Pro that can fix the problem in that situation. There may be some 3rd party software that might recover the file. You could probably send the file to FMI to recover. I guess that the same rules would apply as for password recovery; you would have to satisfy them that you are the owner of the files.

The best defense is to do frequent backups, and always keep a clean clone of your latest files available to import data from recovered files.