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FairCom DB advanced encryption (AES, Blowfish, Twofish, 3DES) requires a master password to protect encrypted file access. Before starting FairCom DB for the first time with Advanced Encryption enabled, the Administrator must use the ctcpvf utility to create the master password verification file. Each time FairCom DB starts, it prompts for the master password to allow it to open encrypted files.
ctcpvf creates the master password verification file. It accepts optional parameters: filename (the file name to create) and password (the master password). If the parameters are not given, ctcpvf will prompt for the required information.
Usage
ctcpvf [-c <cipher>] [-f <filename>] [-k <key>] [-s <store>]
Where:
Note: If you don't use the -syslevel switch, you must run the FairCom Server under the same user account that was used to run the ctcpvf utility that created the master key store file. Using the ‑syslevel switch creates the master key store file so that it can be opened by any user account on that machine, which allows you to run the FairCom Server under any user account on the system. (See Advanced encryption master key store encrypted at system level on Windows.)
Note: FairCom DB looks for the file ctsrvr.pvf in the server binary area, so this file name should be specified. ctcpvf.exe creates the ctsrvr.pvf file in that same directory where it is run (e.g., the tools directory). On launch, the server looks for ctsrvr.pvf in the server directory, so ctsrvr.pvf needs to be moved or copied to the server directory.
Key Store Option
By default, this master key must be presented to FairCom DB on startup as prompted. However, this prompted interaction is not always possible. Consider the case of a failover strategy for business continuity, or the case where no single person should ever know the complete key as keys are built from random secure key generators. FairCom DB supports a key store file to provide this key value at startup.
The ctcpvf utility -s option is used to select the master key length, and to write the master key to an encrypted keystore file <store>.
The FairCom DB configuration option MASTER_KEY_FILE specifies the key store file, <store>, from which FairCom DB reads the master encryption key. On Linux and Unix systems, the master key is stored AES encrypted in a file on disk, with permissions set such that only the user that created the file can read it (permissions are set to 400). For complete security, it is important to use file system access safeguards to fully protect this key store file.
Non-server applications must set the environment variable CTREE_MASTER_KEY_FILE=<keystore> to enable using a key store rather than prompting for the master password at FairCom DB initialization.
Note: The key file (or user key on Linux and Unix) is encrypted using AES. The encryption is intended to only prevent casual inspection of the data when the file's contents are viewed. The permissions on the file are the defense against an unauthorized user reading the file. The Windows master key approach uses the Microsoft DPAPI to encrypt data with user credentials, and only that user can decrypt the file. Unix support is a bit weaker in this regard as it relies on file permissions, which can potentially be changed such that another user could read and decrypt the key.
