Password Protecting database file

[jemsnj]

How do I password protect a database file. I tried "save as" but there is no checkbox that allows me to password protect the .odb file.

[DACM]

How do I password protect a database file.

Password access to the database data (tables, etc.) -or- encrypted access to the database files (mydb.script, mydb.data, etc.)?

Neither is supported by Base, itself, as Base is only a front-end.

For password access to the database data, HSQLDB (the built-in database engine with OOo), supports 'Role-based Security' including schema-level, table- & view-level, and even column-level access restrictions by user-rights or assigned-roles. HSQLDB presents a dialog box for username and password entry upon database connection. Here's bit of a hack that allows you to add password-protected access to an 'embedded database' in Base. But the normal method requires a multi-file/mode database configuration. You can migrate an 'embedded database' to the multi-file configuration as needed.

If you need encrypted database files you at least two options:
(1) Upgrade to HSQLDB 2.0 for encrypted database support.
-or-
(2) Use a TrueCrypt of FreeOTFE container or partition.

Some combination of both role-based security and encryption make the most sense, but as you can see these are not trivial to setup. I think option (1) is the superior approach because it maintains data-security even when the database is open, while option (2) only secures the files when the encryption-container is closed.