TestStand Password security

[J.M. Cereuil]

In TestStand(v2.01)"CFG" folder, if you edit "User.ini" with notepad at [UserLists.Users[0]] you see LoginName = "administrator". If you blank the Password line (Password = ""), everybody is able to enter teststand as administrator mode.The unique way to prevent this is setting Windows acces of the file or folder, but block the passwords updating.
Is it a known bug or a National Instrument wish ?

[Benjamin_C]

Hi,

TestStand provides user management. It enables some development or administration tools access to be restricted to some users.
The purpose of this user management is to avoid critical parameters to be changed accidentally by an operator.
This management was not developed in order to protect your application against someone with bad intentions.
That's why, it is possible to modify the password list in the "users.ini" file. It can be useful when the administrator has lost or forgotten his password.
The only way to offer a full protection is to restrict access to the file folder as you do.

Regards,

Benjamin CHARLES
Applications Engineer
National Instruments France

[Quintin]

What can be done in version 4.0 or greater when the administrator has forgotten his/her password?  Since now the users.ini file is encrypted.  Would simply deleting the existing users.ini file reset all the user accounts and privileges?

[herosphro]

Quintin,

You are correct. If you rename (safer than deleting) the Users.ini file in the TestStand Config direcotry and then open TestStand (Sequence Editor or a User Interface) it should recreate the default Users.ini file.  This should restore your access to TestStand.

[SnellyUSA]

Can the original user.ini file be reinstated by deleting the newly created one and renaming the original file?