Initializing the Security Database ---------------------------------- The security database (security4.fdb) has no predefined users. This is intentional. Having user with well known predefined password and full access rights is serious security risk. Firebird starting with version 3.0 does not require presence of SYSDBA user. One can use another name for god-like user, have them different per-database or even work without users in security database using authentication plugins that do not require it. That all is out of scope here: this document describes step by step how to manually prepare security database for usage similar to what one could see in previous firebird (and/or interbase) versions. Normally this task is performed by installers but in a case you wish to perform manual installation or complete failed on creation user installer - this text is for you. You will need to create the user SYSDBA and set up the password for it using SQL CREATE USER command syntax in embedded mode as your first step to getting remote access to databases. Initialization is performed in embedded mode using the isql utility. For an embedded connection, an authentication password is not required and will be ignored if you provide one. An embedded connection will work fine with no login credentials and "log you in" using your host credentials if you omit a user name. However, even though the user name is not subject to authentication, creating or modifying anything in the existing security database requires that the user be SYSDBA; otherwise, isql will throw a privilege error for the CREATE USER request. The SQL user management commands will work with any open database. Because the sample database employee.fdb is present in your installation and already aliased in databases.conf, it is convenient to use it for the user management task. 1. Stop the Firebird server. Firebird caches connections to the security database aggressively. The presence of server connections may prevent isql from establishing an embedded connection. 2. In a suitable shell, start an isql interactive session, opening the employee database via its alias: > isql -user sysdba employee 3. Create the SYSDBA user: WARNING! Do not just copy and paste! Generate your own strong password! SQL> create user SYSDBA password 'StrongPassword'; SQL> exit; WARNING! Do not just copy and paste! Generate your own strong password! 4. To complete the initialization, start the Firebird server again. Now you will be able to perform a network login to databases using login SYSDBA and the password you assigned to it. An effective password with authentication plugin Srp can be up to 20 characters, Srp256 provides efficient passwords up to 32 characters or up to 64 characters when Srp512 is used. At the same time a password of up to 255 characters will be valid but in a case of brute force attack it's highly possible that duplicated password with length approximately equal to efficient one can be found. The initialization can also be scripted using the file input option of isql with the content being same as interactive usage. > isql -i init.sql -user sysdba employee