Mysterious data in an .adp file

[mikevalenza]

As part of an effort to make sure that certain kinds of secure data do not show up in various files on our network, we ran across an .adp file (Access project) that contains private data, but we can't figure out how to view it (or get rid of it) through Microsoft Access itself (this is version 2002). We know that the data is there by bringing the file up in a text viewer (like Textpad). Even though it is a binary file, we can see text data amongst the various unreadable character. The data seems to be in some way associated with an access report. The headings and labels of this report show up in the text viewer directly next to the data in question.



The question I have is--how can the contents or data associated with a report end up in an Access file? I've tried using the compact/repair utility, but that had no effect on this. Since it is an access project file, all the tables are linked directly to a SQL Server database, so there are no local tables (that I am aware of) in this database.

This mystery has been causing me to scratch my head for a few days and I can't figure out how to find, but more importantly how to get rid of, this data.

Thanks for any help or suggestions that anyone can offer.

[boblarson]

I don't know if you were aware of this, but opening an Access file in anything other than Access can corrupt it irrecoverably. It may not happen all of the time but it is a very, very high risk for doing so. So, opening it with a text file is not good.

Without giving real data away, can you be a bit more specific as to what you saw (give a real example of the type of data and what it said except using bogus data for a substitute for the real data as I know you can't specify real data)?

And just because the headings and labels of the report are next to the readable data, doesn't mean it is even associated with that report. But you might check the system tables and any of the report properties.

Yes, ADPs do not include local tables but that doesn't mean that Access hasn't cached something somewhere. But without real specifics it may not be possible for us to answer very well.

[mikevalenza]

I am actually opening up a copy of the actual Access file, so I am trying to be careful not to mess with the real copy of the one that is showing this data.

I'm not sure if I can clarify this very well in a meaningful way, but I will try.

There is one particular existing report in the Access database that has a set of labels in the header and the detail section which match, in order, what I am seeing in the notepad view of a part of the access file near where the confidential data shows up. In particular, the text file view shows labels from the report like (I've renamed the fields here): FIELD1 FIELD2 FIELD3 FIELD4
FIELD5
FIELD6
FIELD7 FIELD8

and so forth (there are many more labels).

After the last label shows up in the text file, I immediately then see some values that match what would be data in the report. The content of these values don't fall in the exact same order as they appear in the report, but I can match them one by one with the fields that they would belong in.

ZZZ9999
9 99999 99999 99999 99

I then immediate see what appears to be some repeating data that also, based on the content of that data, would match against certain of the fields labeled above that would appear in the report (I've just modified it all to 9s and Zs):
ZZZZZZZZZZ ZZZZZZZZZZZ
ZZZZZZZZZZ 999999999 ZZZZZZZZZZZ 999999999 ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ 999999999 ZZZZZZZZZZZ ZZZZZZZZZZZ

The fact that the actual data seems to match up against what labels that appear direct above it (although not always in the same order) seems to me to point to the idea that the data is associated with the fields on this report somehow.

The other interesting thing is that it repeats. The data that I described above is showing up several times throughout the access file (about 10 times) immediate after the lables, although the labels are showing up even more, over a 100 times, without the associated data.

I don't pretend to know how to interpret the binary file, of course. My concern is the data that is containing confidential information, that we don't want sitting around on people's PCs or on shared drives. Again, since there are no local tables that I am aware of in this access project file, and I am not seeing this data hard code in any of the modules or code, and I also did a search using the "Total Deep Search" add-on and didn't find any of it that way, it isn't clear to me how this is showing up in the binary file and I am wondering if there is some way to get rid of it.

Thanks!

[mikevalenza]

We think we figured out what was going on. It turned out that there was an embedded Excel worksheet in the report.

[boblarson]

Ah, thanks for posting back with that so if that ever appears again we'll know what to send someone looking for. That is very helpful since I couldn't figure out any rational reason for it to be there.