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Resolved Application level encryption handling in PowerBuilder

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  1. Gilbert L
    Gilbert L
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. Wednesday, 22 November 2023 00:41 AM UTC

I've an application which is developed by PB, and the database is DB2. It's required to implement application level encryption for sensitive data, i.e. column encryption by application instead of DB feature. Is there any suggestion for the implementation? Thanks.

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Chris Pollach @Appeon
Chris Pollach @Appeon Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Wednesday, 22 November 2023 01:29 AM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 1

Hi Gilbert;

  Most DBMS's like Oracle, ASE & SS implement a Column Encryption feature by the DBMS itself. I don't have any experience with DB2 in that matter so you should contact IBM for their expertise in supporting that feature. I have used SS & ASE column encryption & not only did it work but it was transparent to PB App's. HTH

Regards ... Chris 

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Gilbert L
Gilbert L Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Wednesday, 22 November 2023 01:39 AM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 2

Hi Chris,

Thanks for your reply. According to the company policy, it's required to implement the encryption and decryption in application, not by DBMS itself. Since data would be retrieved and updated through DataWindow. Encrypted data from database would need to be decrypted before displaying, and data would encrypt before saving into database. Additional DataWindows would be needed for data transformation?

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Chris Pollach @Appeon
  1. Chris Pollach @Appeon
  2. Wednesday, 22 November 2023 02:32 AM UTC
The DBMS column encryption feature flows through to the DB Client driver. It's that driver that decrypts the data stream (result set).

If you still want to do this in the PB App though, you would need to use the CrypterObject on the DWO's buffers. However, you would need to script that feature yourself. ;-)
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Gilbert L
  1. Gilbert L
  2. Wednesday, 22 November 2023 02:50 AM UTC
Hi Chris,

Do you have any example for using CrypterObject with DataWindow? Or could you explain a bit more about how it could be done? Thanks.
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Chris Pollach @Appeon
  1. Chris Pollach @Appeon
  2. Wednesday, 22 November 2023 03:17 AM UTC
Strangely enough, I have been thinking of doing this in my STD Framework. In the framework's last release, I completely encrypted all the DBMS traffic / settings going through your Transaction Object (aka SQLCA). FYI: https://chrispollach.blogspot.com/2023/10/2023r2.html

The next step I was thinking of was to extend this App memory data encryption into the DWO's buffers. However at this time, it was just a thought for the next release of the framework. I do have a few ideas on how to do this but, noting concrete or in a prototype at this point.
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