Encoding a password enables you
to write SAS programs without having to specify a password in plain
text. The PWENCODE procedure uses encoding to disguise passwords.
With encoding, one character set is translated to another character
set through some form of table lookup. An encoded password is intended
to prevent casual, non-malicious viewing of passwords. You should
not depend on encoded passwords for all your data security needs;
a determined and knowledgeable attacker can decode the encoded passwords.
When an encoded password
is used, the syntax parser decodes the password and accesses the file.
The encoded password is never written to the SAS log in plain text.
SAS doesn't accept passwords longer than eight characters. If an encoded
password is decoded and is longer than eight characters, SAS reads
it as an incorrect password and sends an error message to the SAS
log. For more information, see
PWENCODE Procedure in Base SAS Procedures Guide.