Ranger and Sage Line 50

Question

Why does LAN Ranger record a security violation when Sage Line 50 starts?

Symptoms

When a user starts Sage Line 50 the machine beeps and LAN Ranger continually records security violations. There maybe two types of error message being recorded.

As Sage Line 50 starts up the error "Illegal drive in file dialog: C:Program FilesSageAccountstaskbar.htm" is logged.

As the users open input dialogs the error "Illegal drive in file dialog: / / " occurs.

The first error is caused by the application title referencing the local c: drive. This is a fairly common problem with HTML based software including help files. Unlike the majority of software web based software shows the path where they are running from in the window title or address bar.

The second error is caused by input dialogs usually wizard dialogs or data entry forms which are preloaded with default values that match our security checks. Every time a dialog loads Ranger scans the dialog including the default values to see if they reference any restricted locations. If Ranger finds values like c: or in the dialog Ranger will try to delete these values preventing the user from accessing these locations. Sometimes Ranger will interact with a dialogs which appears to have no reference to a secured location however this is because the values are hidden.

Cause

In both errors the problem occurs because Ranger's active security has found values in the program dialogs which violate the security settings. This is easier to see in the first error because the value is not hidden from view whereas the second error is caused in-directly by a date field where a forward slash is used to format the date field. Because the user has not entered the date yet the default value for this field is ' / / ' which Ranger interprets as an attempt to access a UNC path.

Resolution

The solution for both errors is to add the paths seen as a security violation into Ranger's Windows Explorer Exceptions. Ranger will then ignore these paths and therefore no further security violations will occur when these dialogs load.

Instructions

Open Ranger Administrator and then go to Edit > Settings > General tab and add two exceptions.

1. "C:Program FilesSageAccountstaskbar.htm "
2. " / / " (please note there are two spaces between each slash i.e. 99/99/9999)

Testing

Logon as a restricted user and load Sage. Try accessing different parts of the system and then check LAN Rangers status logs of security violations. If the exception has worked no errors should be reported.