Solved MS Access file with VBA macros

Hello all,
So I got an assignment for my course (Database management) to do a small project to create a database using the info in this file. My concern is that when I opened the file (that was provided by the professor on school's site) It showed a warning that it has macros! I looked at it and it was "VBA macros". I did not really want to enable it, since I know that macros can do major damage, and I can't really trust any source. I do not know what to do, I thought about doing this process on a VM, but it's hectic. I ran the file through VirusTotal and Windows Defender and they showed no problems.

xDeadlYx said:

Hello all,
... using the info in this file.

Click to expand...

What type file? Was it a database file ? What antimalware program have you got installed ?

idgat said:

What type file? Was it a database file ? What antimalware program have you got installed ?

Click to expand...

It is a Microsoft Access Database file. I have Windows Defender, The warning showed in Office when I opened the file.

This is the default Office warning for any downloaded files. Windows marks these files as saved from another computer.

E-mail your instructor, and ask them to provide MD5 or SHA hashes for the class downloads.

No amount of security checking can prove if those are the original files, unless your professor digitally signed them. Which I doubt they would bother doing. But publishing the hashes provides reasonable assurance, unless the university's website has been hacked. At some point, you'll have to trust someone.

OK, well, the decision is yours. Do you trust the source? That warning window offers the opportunity to "trust" this particular file ("Enable content"). And, as the message says, you can turn off settings in the Trust Centre.

garlin said:

This is the default Office warning for any downloaded files. Windows marks these files as saved from another computer.

E-mail your instructor, and ask them to provide MD5 or SHA hashes for the class downloads.

No amount of security checking can prove if those are the original files, unless your professor digitally signed them. Which I doubt they would bother doing. But publishing the hashes provides reasonable assurance, unless the university's website has been hacked. At some point, you'll have to trust someone.

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Thank you for the info. I will try emailing the professor to ask about this, but I don't know, it might sound weird to them. I will try though.

idgat said:

OK, well, the decision is yours. Do you trust the source? That warning window offers the opportunity to "trust" this particular file ("Enable content"). And, as the message says, you can turn off settings in the Trust Centre.

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That's the thing, I don't generally trust any source unless it's legit. In this case, it is the first time I get an assignment that require me to download such file and gave me this warning, so it made me skeptical tbh.

xDeadlYx said:

Thank you for the info. I will try emailing the professor to ask about this, but I don't know, it might sound weird to them. I will try though.

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Why? Computer security is a very relevant topic in programming and database design, especially with leaked data. I would think an instructor would be happy at least one student was aware of security concerns.

If you're ready to trust the file, remove the evil Mark of the Web.
Remove Mark of the Web from a file

You are stressing over nothing. Office disables macros by default. That is to protect the naive user from running an errant macro. If you want to be a power user and develop a real access database then enable macros. When you are not taking the class you can disable macros again.

Are you saying you don't trust your professor? Really?



Macros are VBA code that you will be add/edit for an Access database project. All Microsoft Office programs can be used with VBA macros. As long you are using an office document from a trusted source such as your instructor you should be safe to enable macros.

Note I have worked with Office VBA macros for over 20 years. Working with VBA macro is no big deal and actually fun once you get the hang of it.

Here is a screenshot of an Access project I developed 10 years ago. Some of the VBA macros are shown.

VBA macros is normal.

relax.

In Wall Street, in tech/engineering/bios sector, people run VBA macros daily over last 30 years. As Ed mentioned, What you see is Office default setup.

MisterEd said:

You are stressing over nothing. Office disables macros by default. That is to protect the naive user from running an errant macro. If you want to be a power user and develop a real access database then enable macros. When you are not taking the class you can disable macros again.

Are you saying you don't trust your professor? Really?

View attachment 59090

Macros are VBA code that you will be add/edit for an Access database project. All Microsoft Office programs can be used with VBA macros. As long you are using an office document from a trusted source such as your instructor you should be safe to enable macros.

Note I have worked with Office VBA macros for over 20 years. Working with VBA macro is no big deal and actually fun once you get the hang of it.

Here is a screenshot of an Access project I developed 10 years ago. Some of the VBA macros are shown.

View attachment 59089

Click to expand...

Not only in Access (actually if you want a better FREE database system MariaDB / MySQL is far superior BTW and runs also in Windows Use standard sql statements to manipulate, can export data to EXCEL, can be accessed via GUI's such as phyMyadmin or Heidisql (Free on Windows) - note if using EXCEL install the ODBC driver). No VBA stuff needed for MariaDB !!

Example of MariaDB with a test DB.


VBA macros are used a lot in EXCEL as well -- especially good also for getting say stock data from the web and regularly updating it or doing a lot of "What If" scenarios -- change 1 variable and see the effects on the rest etc. Genuine multi-user DB system. Access breaks regularly and doesn't allow concurrent users.

cheers
jimbo

MisterEd said:

You are stressing over nothing. Office disables macros by default. That is to protect the naive user from running an errant macro. If you want to be a power user and develop a real access database then enable macros. When you are not taking the class you can disable macros again.

Are you saying you don't trust your professor? Really?

View attachment 59090

Macros are VBA code that you will be add/edit for an Access database project. All Microsoft Office programs can be used with VBA macros. As long you are using an office document from a trusted source such as your instructor you should be safe to enable macros.

Note I have worked with Office VBA macros for over 20 years. Working with VBA macro is no big deal and actually fun once you get the hang of it.

Here is a screenshot of an Access project I developed 10 years ago. Some of the VBA macros are shown.

View attachment 59089

Click to expand...

Thank you! I did not say I don't trust my professor. Though the file was not made by the professor and I don't know where they got it from. That was my concern because it is my 1st time opening such file type. I don't know about macro code, but I know it could be used maliciously. I asked to get insight and feedback on such concern but I appreciate your answer. It is actually good they're blocked by default for the "naive user".

jimbo45 said:

Not only in Access (actually if you want a better FREE database system MariaDB / MySQL is far superior BTW) but VBA macros are used a lot in EXCEL as well -- especially good also for getting say stock data from the web and regularly updating it or doing a lot of "What If" scenarios -- change 1 variable and see the effects on the rest etc.

cheers
jimbo

Click to expand...

Yeah a part of my project after editing these files is to use MySQL to create these databases and their tables.

xDeadlYx said:

Yeah a part of my project after editing these files is to use MySQL to create these databases and their tables.

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I wouldn't advise anybody if they need a robust DB system to even THINK of using Access. I do think the Ms Office suite even today is without equal although Access is definitely (IMHO) the weakest program in the suite, Outlook (email client) could be better but is OK.

cheers
jimbo

xDeadlYx said:

I got an assignment for my course (Database management) to do a small project to create a database using the info in this file.
...
My concern is that when I opened the file (that was provided by the professor on school's site) It showed a warning that it has macros!

Click to expand...

xDeadlYx said:

I do not know what to do,

Click to expand...

Ask your professor.
Your professor created or passed on that file so ought to be able to explain why it contains macros and whether or not it is safe to open.

And I think it makes no sense for an exercise in creating a database to be based on a file containing macros.
I think there has been an administrative error in distributing that file to students.
The file I would have expected them to give you would have contained no active content because it would have been a simple set of lists.

And if the file you've been given is an Access .accdb file or an Excel .xlsm file then it is a database already.


Best of luck,
Denis

The fact that VBA macros are blocked in all MS Office apps by default is obviously a good thing (a very long time ago they were not blocked by default, and many people fell victim to this so eventually this default behavior in MS Office was changed by Microsoft). But you still might need to run these macros to be able to do what you want to do, and, it's tedious to run a VM for this purpose like you said. You could always decide to try Sandboxie-Plus, as running MS Access under the supervision of Sandboxie-Plus prevents both it and any new processes that it creates (also including all other programs/apps that may be launched by it) from making permanent changes to files/folders that are located outside the sandbox, as the changes will be isolated in the sandbox environment that these processes are running in.

@xDeadlYx

Using Hedisql you can easily see data in MariaDB / MySQL

e,g the same data I used in phyMyadmin a few posts back.

Now on standard windows :

Using HeidiSQL




And imported into EXCEL via EXCEL Get data->from Msquery (You need to install the ODBC driver on Windows for this to work --Free from the MariaDB site as well as the database system itself). Remember also the correct port is 3306.



No need for MsAccess with dubious VBA stuff.

Cheers
jimbo

hdmi said:

The fact that VBA macros are blocked in all MS Office apps by default is obviously a good thing (a very long time ago they were not blocked by default, and many people fell victim to this so eventually this default behavior in MS Office was changed by Microsoft). But you still might need to run these macros to be able to do what you want to do, and, it's tedious to run a VM for this purpose like you said. You could always decide to try Sandboxie-Plus, as running MS Access under the supervision of Sandboxie-Plus prevents both it and any new processes that it creates (also including all other programs/apps that may be launched by it) from making permanent changes to files/folders that are located outside the sandbox, as the changes will be isolated in the sandbox environment that these processes are running in.

Click to expand...

But this is a college class! Access will be run in either Windows 10 or 11. People taking these classes are training for the real world. You're not going to use a VM or similar at a regular job.

The class syllabus determines what software is used. If it says Microsoft Access then that is what will be used. I don't understand why people are arguing for something different.

MisterEd said:

But this is a college class! Access will be run in either Windows 10 or 11. People taking these classes are training for the real world. You're not going to use a VM or similar at a regular job.

The class syllabus determines what software is used. If it says Microsoft Access then that is what will be used. I don't understand why people are arguing for something different.

Click to expand...

Yeah it's a training before finals, and will be using MySQL for beginners. I emailed the professor and told me that I can use Microsoft access, (it was the default anyway) and the macros are safe to run. I'll take their word for it.

MisterEd said:

But this is a college class! Access will be run in either Windows 10 or 11. People taking these classes are training for the real world. You're not going to use a VM or similar at a regular job.

The class syllabus determines what software is used. If it says Microsoft Access then that is what will be used. I don't understand why people are arguing for something different.

Click to expand...

Firstly, like I already tried to point out in my post, Sandboxie-Plus is not a VM. Rather, it is called isolation software, and FOSS (free open source software), published on GitHub.

Secondly, the real world comes bundled with real problems like hackers who break into college network infrastructures and lazy professors, the latter often will assume they know everything about everything. Mainly as a consequence of these two real problems, the concerns that were raised by @garlin are all 100% valid, and are valid for reasons that shoud be trivial for someone who, like me, has been programming computers for 38 years, but even after 38 years of knowing Microsoft you won't hear me say that I'm an expert. Knowledge is always important I mean, but since we were talking about the real world, I'll argue for something different. So, I'll argue for things like, "Once bitten, twice shy" and "Better safe than sorry".