simple encryption question

[Former Member]

Can anyone provide me with a better explanation of what simple encryption means in SQL Anywhere? The manual states that simple encryption is equivalent to "obfuscation", which leaves me just as unknowing as before. In practice, how easy would it be to deobfuscate a SQL Anywhere 10 db. If its easily done, we may need to move our databases to a strong encryption.

[VolkerBarth]

AFAIK, simple encryption means the database (or configuration file, cf. DBFHIDE) is encrypted with a built-in key, so the SQL Anywhere software can encrpyt and decrypt data without the need of a separate key.

I can't tell how hard it is to decrypt such data yourself (or to re-engineer the built-in key) but it's obviously different from strong encryption.

At least, I'm quite sure it has not written down in a book as other, so-called secure keys...

[MCMartin]

I don't think it is a hardcoded key, I guess it is just a simple algorithm like XOR the data or use ROT13.