Visual Basic and J++

Question

Are there any issues with VB6 or J++ and Ranger?

Symptoms

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Cause

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Resolution

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Instructions

VB6 - The application cannot start.

Visual Basic is one of the standard "banned" applications for groups with Ranger security applied. If you have copied the default security configurations to your own groups or users are logging in as members of the "Domain Users" or "RangerSecureUsers" groups then it is likely they will not be able to start VB.

Visual Basic is restricted from running through both application checks and title checks. Both of these methods aren't strictly necessary but are included in default configurations for illustrative purposes.

To allow VB, start RangerAdmin and locate the "Project 1 - Microsoft Visual Basic" item in the group's applications security tab.

Select the item and click remove.

Next, select the "Title Checks" tab and remove the entry for "Microsoft Visual Basic".

VB6 & J++ Start-up

Normally, when VB6 and J++ are started they display a standard project start-up dialog. This dialog allows the user to choose to work with a new, existing or recent project.

Ranger will close this start-up project dialog because the dialog looks to Ranger like a standard Open/Save dialog. When Ranger tries to "insert" the user's home directory to change to their default open/save path the dialog crashes and closes.

This is a result of the non-standard dialog Microsoft use and cannot be avoided.

Ranger 4.4 can stop Ranger automatically interacting with this dialog.

Open the Ranger.dat file from the server's Ranger directory. Find the section called DefPathDefaultExes, by default we have included the main Office application file names, you can add others. For each application added, a numeric value needs to be assigned, if you are adding a new application then increase the last assigned value by one and then modify the count value to include the new application. Note: If you are adding a new application then use LAN Ranger to verify the application name because the values are case sensitive.

5DEVENV.EXE
6VB6.exe

This modification will stop Ranger from interacting with any file dialogs started from within the exes DEVENV.EXE and VB6.EXE. Note: it is important that you ensure the dialogs initially start pointing to the user's home drive. If not and they point to the "C" drive or other illegal drive, you may need to revoke the setting or manually set the application to default to a safe drive by default.

After modifying this file you will need to reboot the client machine for these changes to take affect. To test, open the application and go to file open or save dialog and verify that Ranger is no longer modifying the path.

VB6 - Application closes down when users add additional components (Windows 2000)

When working on a project form, if you try to install a control file (via the ProjectComponents menu) VB closes itself down when you click OK.

This problem is not caused by Ranger, but is instead an internal VB error which occurs when the user is not a local machine administrator. This problem still occurs if Ranger is removed from the local machine but does not occur if the user is a member of the "Domain Admins" group.

Visual Basic - General

Visual Basic is a powerful application programming language. Since Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is installed by default with Microsoft Office, users will (unless restricted) have full access to VB from within Word, Excel etc.

If you are experiencing security problems with VB6 then we recommend disabling security or using non-network machines when using this software. VB6 is a powerful programming tool and its use must also come with some responsibility on the part of the user.

Ranger attempts to provide the best balance between security and use for most common software but most programming tools do require greater machine access and contain access to many system specific functions and dialogs. Typically, sites faced with this sort of choice will usually create a group for these users which removes most security and insist users sign and abide by an acceptable use policy to avoid repercussions in the event of deliberate tampering.

As with any programming language a competent programmer with malicious intent will be able to us it to access Ranger settings, compromise network security and possibly corrupt the Ranger installation.

For this reason, VB is banned by default for standard users. If VB or VBA is needed for macro development or programming classes then be aware that allowing it may give users access to the development tools they need to circumvent your system security.

? We would recommend that VB is only allowed for restricted groups of users.
? These groups are made aware that their actions can be monitored via LAN Ranger.
? If necessary, suspected abuse can be tracked by LAN Ranger's "user tracking" and
automated screen shots.
? Security is tightened as much as possible to include path and time limitations.

in summary, if Visual Basic or other programming languages are allowed on the network, then security from malicious and semi-skilled "probing" is drastically reduced.

Testing

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