Data Source passwords in Config Files

Anybody find a sound approach to being able to store DataSource connection information in a configuration and be able to access a Data Source that requires a password for login?

Storing it as a configuraiton in the DB is not an option, as you require the pw to access the DB that would store it.

Can security be applied to an environment variable? Registry?

Anyone successfully use the registry to store configuration values?I'm not sure what your criterion for sound is, so I don't know if this meets it :), but you can store credentials (username & password) in a configuration file, and then make an environment variable which gives its path, and then configure a Package Configuration in the SSIS package to use the environment variable.
Of course you have to configure the environment variable for each machine (and for each user, if two users on one machine will use different credentials -- therefore, different configuration files).
Then, the credentials being now in one or more files, secure access to these files via traditional NTFS ACLs (file pemissions).
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I guess by sound, I meant, any way that works... when i store the pw in the config the .xml file represents it like the following:

- <Configuration ConfiguredType="Property" Path="\Package.Connections [MDB].Properties[Password]" ValueType="String">

<ConfiguredValue />

</Configuration>

This results in the error:
Error 1 Validation error. Data Flow Task: OLE DB Source [1]: The AcquireConnection method call to the connection manager "MDB" failed with error code 0xC0202009. Package2.dtsx 0 0

Have you been able to do this?.. am I missing something? I am also storing the connection string, initial catalog, and username in the config file.

|||When the file is generated by Visual Studio, it will not write the pw. I was able to get it to work by modifying the file directly.. duh.|||I'm assuming that you're not on a domain and so cannot use integrated authentication?
K|||Yes, Joe, We've been using the solution I explained above, with different configurations for different developers on the same machine (so they can use different login names, so the processes are distinguishable in SQL Server Enterprise Manager).
But, we've been using SQL Server logons (not integrated), because we're using a SQL Server 2000 backend. What you quoted sounds like you're using an mdb backend, which we've not tried.
To set up a new configuration with a new set of credentials, I first add the environment variable for that user, pointing it to where the config file is going to be. Then I put a config file there -- I take an existing one, and using a text editor, change the logon name & password (stored in plaintext in the file).
The very first time we did this, SSIS generated the config file for us; since then, we've been hand editing it for each machine and/or credential combination.

|||Here is an edited copy of our config file. Everything beginning with Zz is something that I edited before posting (along with the nifty DEADBEEF guid).
Also I added the carriage returns and whitespaces -- the raw config file is a whitespaceless mess.
******************

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<DTSConfiguration>
<DTSConfigurationHeading>
<DTSConfigurationFileInfo GeneratedBy="ZzMachineName\ZzUserName" GeneratedFromPackageName="Zz Our Nifty Package" GeneratedFromPackageID="{DEADBEEF-AAAA-BBBB-CCCC-DEADBEEFBEEF}" GeneratedDate="7/26/2005 4:25:01 PM"/>
</DTSConfigurationHeading>
<Configuration ConfiguredType="Property" Path="\Package.Connections[ZZ_OUR_CONN_NAME].Properties[Password]" ValueType="String">
<ConfiguredValue>ZzBigSecretPassword</ConfiguredValue>
</Configuration>
<Configuration ConfiguredType="Property" Path="\Package.Connections[ZZ_OUR_CONN_NAME].Properties[UserName]" ValueType="String">
<ConfiguredValue>ZzLogonNameForThisDeveloperHere</ConfiguredValue>
</Configuration>
<Configuration ConfiguredType="Property" Path="\Package.Connections[ZZ_OUR_NOTHER_CONN].Properties[Password]" ValueType="String">
<ConfiguredValue>ZzBigSecretPassword</ConfiguredValue>
</Configuration>
<Configuration ConfiguredType="Property" Path="\Package.Connections[ZZ_OUR_NOTHER_CONN].Properties[UserName]" ValueType="String">
<ConfiguredValue>ZzLogonNameForThisDeveloperHere</ConfiguredValue>
</Configuration>
</DTSConfiguration>