How to unlock a locked down program on a single networked computer

MarcLister · 19 Nov 2013 at 20:43

I've recently taken over as the ICT Manager for a school I've been at for 3 years. My boss left in August.

We've since found that an application we use to track student behaviour is locked down so that it will only run on a particular user's network account. This user's role within the school has changed which means it is inappropriate for her to have access to the confidential data held within the application. The problem is that only her account will run the program.

My ex-boss has, in some way, locked the program down so that only this user can run the program. I've looked at the ownership of the program's executables as well as access rights and can see nothing. I've spoken to our ICT support company who've no idea what's been done. Even the makers of the program don't know how this lock down has been done.

I need to unlock the program so that anyone using the computer the program is installed on can access the program wherein only authorised users can log into the program itself. Any ideas?

kirbz · 19 Nov 2013 at 22:35

NTFS permissions would have been my guess. Can you tell us the program? Somebody may have had dealings with it. Are there any error messages when somebody tries to use it?

MarcLister · 19 Nov 2013 at 22:41

Hi kirbz.

Yeah, I was thinking NTFS permissions. I think I've checked that out.

The program is Sleuth.

When Sleuth is run on another account it asks you to point to a database, where all the data is stored. There's only one to choose. Sleuth says it can't find the necessary tables. On the "chosen" account, Sleuth runs and automatically chooses and opens the very same database.

Glanza · 19 Nov 2013 at 22:41

Is the program installed locally on their machine or on the server and they run it from a local machine?

oldbag · 19 Nov 2013 at 22:44

This might be a group policy: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/8739/restrict-users-to-run-only-specified-programs-in-windows-7/

Rather than being a local policy, there may be a GPO for it, with the settings in that link

UKDTweak · 19 Nov 2013 at 22:45

Check that the database is not locked so only that user can access it?

MarcLister · 19 Nov 2013 at 23:09

Giggz said:
Is the program installed locally on their machine or on the server and they run it from a local machine?

Locally on the machine. Don't even get me started on backups. Why on earth was Sleuth installed to a machine itself with no backups possible? If that PC dies or gets damaged, bye bye years of data.!

oldbag said:
This might be a group policy: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/8739/restrict-users-to-run-only-specified-programs-in-windows-7/

Rather than being a local policy, there may be a GPO for it, with the settings in that link

Cheers. Will check that out tomorrow.

UKDTweak said:
Check that the database is not locked so only that user can access it?

Yep, checked that. After I thought that there might be some special group to be a member of, I wondered if the database was somehow linked to only the one account. Found no evidence of that.

Sin_Chase · 19 Nov 2013 at 23:55

Any User based registry entries (HKCU) or settings files in said Users folder that might give you some pointers?

Might be an application configuration thing rather than permissions.

Sin_Chase · 19 Nov 2013 at 23:55

Any User based registry entries (HKCU) or settings files in said Users folder that might give you some pointers?

Might be an application configuration thing rather than permissions.

MarcLister · 20 Nov 2013 at 06:03

Sin_Chase said:
Any User based registry entries (HKCU) or settings files in said Users folder that might give you some pointers?

Will check that out.

Sin_Chase said:
Might be an application configuration thing rather than permissions.

Unlikely. I emailed the company behind Sleuth yesterday and got a prompt reply saying they've no idea how its been locked down. I had wondered if they allowed Sleuth to be locked down for security reasons hence the email but they said they didn't support this.

m4cc45 · 20 Nov 2013 at 06:47

I'd suggest it was SQL permissions - can you actually use SQL Management Studio and attach to the SQL server - can you then properties the relevant database? Can you look under Security and see who has access?

M.

edscdk · 20 Nov 2013 at 08:20

get a better ICT company.... ?

(probably) an easy to fix if I had sight of the PC...

Any chance of a bit more info that "it does not work".. thats sort of a bit general..

any errors / messages? whats the back end SQL / access?

I'd assume you dont get an application login prompt if you are looking at file permissions?

is it using an ODBC data source?

can another user copy and paste the applictaion folder and short cut? (checks no silly file permissions are in play)

I assume you checked the permissions on the shortcut (now I sort of assume thats file permissions but I ahve never actually tried changing them to see what it does)

Are you far from oxford ill fix it for a price if it comes to that...

MarcLister · 20 Nov 2013 at 18:39

m4cc45 said:
I'd suggest it was SQL permissions - can you actually use SQL Management Studio and attach to the SQL server - can you then properties the relevant database? Can you look under Security and see who has access?

M.

It's an Access database from what I can see. However my colleague who needs access to Sleuth logged onto the PC using her own account and not the specified account belonging to another colleague. It worked fine. We were flabbergasted and couldn't understand why since I've not done anything.

edscdk said:
get a better ICT company.... ?

They're pretty good. They didn't install the program and my ex-boss appeared to have kept them out of the loop with regards to our network so the only person who knows what happened has left.

edscdk said:
(probably) an easy to fix if I had sight of the PC...

edscdk said:

Any chance of a bit more info that "it does not work".. thats sort of a bit general..

Click to expand...

Just checked my previous posts; I never said it doesn't work. I explained that the program was locked down and later on that the program complained of not being able to find the required tables.

edscdk said:

any errors / messages? whats the back end SQL / access?

I'd assume you dont get an application login prompt if you are looking at file permissions?

is it using an ODBC data source?

can another user copy and paste the applictaion folder and short cut? (checks no silly file permissions are in play)

I assume you checked the permissions on the shortcut (now I sort of assume thats file permissions but I ahve never actually tried changing them to see what it does)

Are you far from oxford ill fix it for a price if it comes to that...

Click to expand...

We're in Harrow but the problem appears to be fixed and we're a very tight school.