Run a file from ZIP

[smichov]

Forgive me if I'm a bit clumsy, it's my first time posting. I am developing a training CD with questions to be answered by students. I want to keep the answers away from students, but available to instructors from the same CD the student will have. To protect unauthorized access to the answers, I am thinking of placing all answers to a ZIP file, protected by a password, that will be available to instructors only. This is my question:

Through the AMS menu I am making, can I open any answer file from the ZIP without actually extracting it? Unless I am missing something, that would allow me to have both questions and answers on the same CD, with access available to both teachers (questions and answers) and students (questions only). Plase advise - thanks

[Corey]

Re: Run a file from ZIP

I'm sure someone can answer this but just a heads up, there are tons of password *****ers for ZIP files out there, it's very easy to ***** a ZIP file. See the following link:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=ZIP+password+*****er

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software

[John-oh]

Re: Run a file from ZIP

I looked at something similar for PDF files, I've looked at the *****ers (just viewed the web sites) - why are they nearly all Russians ? Have they something against passwords?

I noticed the first *****er estimated 10 days on one PC to decrypt, so I thought - well, if the users are that keen they're welcome.
I suppose it's all down to how valuable the data is, everything is going to ***** eventually, but if it takes 130 years the info will probably be out of date !

[smichov]

Re: Run a file from ZIP

Thanks, Corey and John-oh - I did consider the ease of ******** passwords, but my intent is a very light protection, more against casual snooping than heavy duty prevention, and I agree with you both. So, if anyone can provide a comment to the top of thread, I would be very grateful. Thanks

[kpsmith]

Re: Run a file from ZIP

Here's a thought. Just use a .txt file but remove the .txt extension. Most users are not smart enough to try opening a file with no extension in a word processing program.

Hey, you said you wanted light protection

[John-oh]

Re: Run a file from ZIP

Sorry, we got carried away with the security angle ..
have a look at this thread, it does unzip, but in such a way the user may be unaware ???
http://www.indigorose.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB2&Number=1401&a mp;page=1&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=0& fpart=

[Lorne]

Re: Run a file from ZIP

Why not use more than one zip file? One for questions, and one for answers. Or 20 different sets of each, for that matter. [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

As for zip password ********, the longer the password is, the harder it is to *****. There are some statistically weighted ******** methods that might be able to speed things up, though.

(With quantum computing almost within our grasp, we may soon reach a time when no passwords are safe, no matter how many thousands of years they might take to ***** with normal computers. But I digress.)

You could always zip up your zips a few more times, each time using a different password, to make it take a little longer. Adding more layers for the thief to unravel, as it were.

Or just use a lot of individual zips with different passwords.

<font color=red>One neat way to do it would be to put each question (or group of questions) in a separate password-protected zip file, and make the answer to the question the password. So you wouldn't be able to get at the answer unless you already knew it.</font color=red>

Or, you could enlist the help of another tool to encrypt/decrypt the text. PGP might be a relatively secure way to do it.

You could probably even build a simple decryption algorithm right in AutoPlay, although it would be a bit tough without a bitwise XOR operator. (I was sooo tempted to include bitwise operators in the condition engine...) You might have to settle for a cipher, although that would probably be just as effective in this case.

[Bruce]

Re: Run a file from ZIP

The link is dead

[TJ_Tigger]

Re: Run a file from ZIP

I am an istructor my self and my question about your Quiz, how importat is it that the students not find the answers. Is it just a testing tool for the students to learn new information or are the answers to the quiz and the students performance going to be tied to mainting employment with the company or maybe result in monitary rewards. If it is the first, I would do somethig simple with a .zip and password protect it. I believe the file has to be extracted to be opened. I have an actions list that i used that would open the password protected file, extract it to the %TempDir% open the file and then delete the file. I also put in the "On Close" and "On Destroy" actions for the project the same search and delete function that was used previously. I will post the script after lunch when I have time.

If there are legal issues involved (raises or loss of job) I would look for an alternate method.

Tigger

13360-zippw.zip

[TJ_Tigger]

Re: Run a file from ZIP

Click Here

[John-oh]

Re: Run a file from ZIP

Thanks tigger

[TJ_Tigger]

Re: Run a file from ZIP

With this script, you may want to do something with the File.Delete. If it results in an error, you may want to perform a File.Search for that file on the local drives. That way if it was copied out of the %TempDir% you can find the file, store it in a varialble and then delete it. I will work on that one. Shouldn't be too hard though.

This will not work of course if the file is renamed. I guess that is what you have to work with though. It should help a little. I hope

[cchian]

Re: Run a file from ZIP

Something neat you can do is to include a variable somewhere within your password so it changes everyday, for example you could insert the variable %day% as part of the password, so if the AMS4 password code was "pass%day%word", the answer today would be "pass24word" and "pass25word" tomorrow. You could even do some math on the variable first or even have more than one variable.