Question : Get into old sybase .db database without password

We have an old .db database that the password is lost on.  Is there a tool to get into it.

Answer : Get into old sybase .db database without password

First, try the default:  UID=DBA, PWD=SQL  and see if that works.  You'd be surprised how many times people don't change that.

Next, call tech support.  There may well be a procedure for recovering a database with a lost DBA password like there is for Sybase ASE.  I have not seen it published though.

Next, try guessing the password for DBA.  Use company names, product names, names of people who did the original install and/or administration.  If that does not work, you will have to get clever.

I have never done it for SQL Anywhere but have had success on a couple of password protected file-based apps hauling out a good hex editor and fiddling with it that way.

The technique in general requires you to create a new, empty database with a known password.  Then create another identical database with a different password.  Then hex diff the two files.  You should find the db name, maybe the creation date, and the password as the differences.  Then change the password on one of them and compare them again.  This should give you an exact offset, or at least enough context to find the password in your old .DB file.

After making a copy of the file, hex edit it and stuff the known, encoded password
string from one of the other databases into the old one.  The fire it up and see if the known password does not work.

You may have problems since the length of the password can vary.  You might have to go through and set known passwords of several different lengths in the new database before you find the matching length in the old database.  Start with a clean copy of the old database each time.

Best of luck,
Bill