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There is free software on-line that is capable of reading the data stored in Access MDB and MDE format.

Is there software that is similarly capable of viewing data in non-password-protected Access 2007 ACCDE format?

Note that my question relates to ACCDE only, not ACCDB.

If there is no such software, please explain if it is theoretically possible to open this format or not, and why it is so.

Please note: I am also not asking for a recommendation of software, just whether it is possible and how/why (although an example of such software would be helpful as hard proof).

authentictech
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  • The question is being asked for security considerations regarding software I am using to store confidential information. – authentictech Feb 08 '14 at 19:52

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A Microsoft Access .accde file is just an .accdb file with

  • any VBA source code removed (just the compiled code is included), and
  • some restrictions on modifying or deleting Forms, Reports, etc.

The actual data in an unencrypted .accde file is just as accessible as it is in an unencrypted .accdb file. For example, if my .accde file contains

DatasheetView.png

and I open the .accde file with a hex editor I can see

HexEdit.png

If you want to protect sensitive information in an Access database file (.accde or .accdb) you will have to encrypt the file with a password.

Gord Thompson
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  • Helpful answer, thanks, and a nice touch with the images. :) – authentictech Feb 09 '14 at 00:37
  • I had tried opening my own ACCDE files in a Hex editor but was only able to read "Standard Jet DB" at the beginning. The rest was garbled even though there is text data in the database. These are non-encrypted and can be opened in the viewer "MDB View Plus" without a password. Any idea why this would be? Thanks. – authentictech Feb 09 '14 at 00:46
  • @authentictech The unencrypted text data was in your file; when you opened the file in your hex editor you just didn't scroll down far enough to see it. Notice in the screenshot above that the text data starts about 180,000 bytes into the file. There is quite a bit of other "stuff" in an `.accdb/e` file besides the table data. – Gord Thompson Feb 09 '14 at 09:07
  • I did scroll down through the entire file and also used a database with a lot of text data in it so would expect to have seen it quite easily. I will try the same hex editor you used and in Windows (I'm on Ubuntu) but I expect that shouldn't really matter. If you can think of any other reason why it doesn't show please let me know. Thanks. – authentictech Feb 10 '14 at 15:18
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    You're right. The readable data was there in the window but in using the scrollbar the data in the window was scrolling much faster than it appeared to be and I was scrolling right past it! – authentictech Feb 14 '14 at 16:48