Re: SqlMenu "runmenu": how to hide parameters?

David Robert Dymm (dymmd_at_source.asset.com) wrote: ...
> runmenu50 my_application $(menu_user) -m fullscreen -c $TERM:$TERM
 ...
> The problem with this approach is that
> executing the command "ps -aef" on our system will produce a listing
> that shows the command "runmenu50" with all of its parameters. I
> would like to keep the username/password hidden from users. How can I
> do this?
 

> I am using two RS-6000s running: AIX 3.2.4 with Oracle 6.0.43.2.1; and
> AIX 3.2.5 with Oracle 7.0.15.4.0. Whatever solution I come up with
> must work on both platforms.

The ps command has equivalents on other platforms (eg. ps -aeww is good under SunOS).

As far as I know, there is no sane way of solving this. The ps command has variants on other platforms. We briefly experimented with writing a wrapper for ps to remove various 'dodgy' words from the output, but gave up because I didn't really know what I was doing :) It might work if implemented properly, since I think you need root access to get at the memory of other processes, so there are only a countable number of ways of doing this.

Be warned: if you're trying to hide a password from the user who is actually using it, then the c-shell jobs command will probably reveal it.

The simplest way is to force the users to type their oracle username and password on the menu title screen (and then don't start subprocesses) or to use ops$ ids.

Any corrections to the above will be gratefully received: I'd like a solution too!

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