When
a password is encoded with PROC PWENCODE, the output string includes a tag that identifies the string as having been encoded. An example
of a tag is {sas001}. The tag indicates the
encoding method. SAS servers and SAS/ACCESS engines recognize the tag and
decode the string before using it. Encoding a password enables you to write
SAS programs without having to specify a password in plaintext.
PROC PWENCODE
uses encoding to disguise passwords. With encoding, one
character set is translated to another character set through some form of
table lookup. Encryption, by contrast, involves the transformation
of data from one form to another through the use of mathematical operations
and, usually, a "key" value. Encryption is generally more difficult
to break than encoding. PROC PWENCODE is intended to prevent casual, non-malicious
viewing of passwords. You should not depend on PROC PWENCODE for all your
data security needs; a determined and knowledgeable attacker can decode the
encoded passwords.
Copyright © 2010 by SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA. All rights reserved.
