Retrieve ODBC DSN Password

Question

Recently I inherited a web server and nobody knows the password to the ODBC connection that talks to the Sql database.

The screen in particular that is asking for the pass looks like:

I tried accessing the registry to retrieve the key, but no dice.

I have access to the Sql Server, which is running TomCat - maybe there would be a call to grab the ODBC connection with the pass?

Any ideas?

Solution

ODBC is a utility on the client that connects back to the SQL server. It uses a user's credentials to gain access to the SQL server.

SQL server has two types of login, either "SQL Authentication" or "Windows Authentication". "SQL Authentication" means the user and password exist in the SQL server (vs. at the Windows/OS-level).

Since you say you have access so the SQL server, then go look in the SQL server and see which logins exist, and if you can tell which one is being used, reset the password, and then update the ODC client to use that.

If you can't tell, make a new login with a new password, give it proper permissions for the DBs it needs to access, and then use that login to connect ODBC to the SQL server.

Comments

[Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007]

Go look in the SQL server and see which logins exist, and if you can tell which one is being used, reset the password. Or make a new login to use.

[Kellen Stuart]

@Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 Would the password for the MS SQL Server be the same as the ODBC connection?

[Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007]

Could be. Depends on how it was set up...

[Kellen Stuart]

@Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 you actually just solved the problem. It turns out if you can log into the MS Sql Server it has a "user" which represents the ODBC connection that stores the ODBC password which you can change. I can't guarantee this is the answer, but soon I will need to change this password and then I'll find out for sure if that "user" is referring to the ODBC connection.