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About Encryption of Gateway Name Server Password Parameters

The siebns.dat file stores information required by the Siebel Gateway Name Server. This includes operational and connectivity information as well as configuration information for the Siebel Enterprise and Siebel Servers. If a Gateway Name Server configuration parameter requires a password value, then the Siebel encryptor writes the password to the siebns.dat file in encrypted format.

NOTE:  End user passwords are not specified as Gateway Name Server parameter values and are not stored in siebns.dat.

Passwords in siebns.dat are encrypted using the RC4 algorithm with a 56-bit encryption key. The encryptor generates the encrypted password using an encryption key that is unique to each parameter. The encryption key itself is generated based on repository information.

If you choose, you can use the Siebel Strong Encryption Pack to increase the encryption key length for encrypting passwords to 128-bits. If you do increase the encryption key length for encrypted passwords in siebns.dat, then the passwords have to be reencrypted using the new key. For a list of some of the password parameters that are encrypted in siebns.dat, and for information on how they are reencrypted, see Reencrypting Password Parameters in the Siebns.dat File.