Security problem

[Robert_Nel]

Hi Dale,
I have just started experiancing a bar lady exiting DHPOS by by clicking on the "x" in the right hand corner , reopening the program to check the sales figures prior to her cashing up so she can "balance" her cash to the registered amounts. Is there a way to prevent this from happening? When questioned about this she claims a power failure happened. I run my music from the same PC and I am warey that a "key logger" program could disrupt my system. Would welcome advice. Our labour laws in South Africa prevent me from dismissing her for lack of evidance.

Robert Nel
user since 3.46

[Andrew]

Robert,

Where are the sales figures shown upon re-opening DHPOS - it's been a while since I used DHPOS regularly, but I can only find the figures on the "close" screen - which you can lock up by setting a password (or leave blank which will require the master password) and set the mode to "1" which will block access to those figures without the password.

DHPOS can't block the use of the "X" button on the DOS console window, if the staff member in question isn't particularly computer-literate you could run DHPOS full-screen which wouldn't show the window and "X" button - they wouldn't necessarily know how to exit full-screen.

Alternatively, I would ideally run DHPOS on a DOS-only PC, or - depending on your version of Windows you can set the program to run automatically before booting into Windows by putting the path to it on a line in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. This will run DHPOS essentially in DOS without Windows being open.

[daleadmin]

Robert_Nel,

Not sure what the advantage of closing out the register and reopening it is. Could you explain?

Since my program is written in DOS it has no control over Windows. If Windows it told to close POS then POS has no way to stop it since it does not even know that Windows exists.

Dale

[Robert_Nel]

Hi Guys.

Thanks for the quick responce. What happens is that when reopening POS the person in question prints the opening reciept which shows the figures to the time of switchiing off the pc or exiting the program and reopening.
I use POS through winxp because I run the music mp3's on the same system with a mouse

Robert Nel

[Andrew]

Ah of course the opening receipt - I had no printer running when I pottered around before. Well that's going to be a tough one to get around, it's kinda impractical to set a password (no option at present) for opening the register.

Like I said - I think your only way is going to be checking the journal for these irregular transactions i.e. an open without a close. That and video surveillance, when I worked at the supermarket one checkout was in direct line of sight of a camera - certain staff would be placed there if management had concerns.

As Dale said - Windows rules overall, if it terminates DHPOS it will do so (and it will close the DOS application brutally), Dale can't stop that happening. You're lucky not to have some data corruption on your hands also with the program being terminated in that fashion.

I realise you use the PC for other tasks, as you mentioned - but my best idea would be to pickup some cheap PC just with DOS on it and use that if at all possible. That way you could only exit DHPOS with a) the close register password or b) rebooting the computer (have the computer itself and power connection/outlet in a locked cupboard under your shop counter).

[Kaz]

I have a couple of ideas for you. One thing is to enable the lock password and set the register to lock automatically when it is closed. And you should be able to run the program full screen and in the properties menu for the shortcut or in on the pos program disable all keyboard shortcuts like alt + tab, alt + enter, etc... This should help a little.

[Kaz]

Also you could do a search how to disable the windows key either with a program or by editing the registry.

[ZeeMan]

I happen to know of a way to disable the "X" button using an external program. Layered on top of an exit password, most novice users would give up and simply stop closing it. The downside is: First, the user can still Ctrl+Alt+Del out of it, and, second, there is a certain easy way to bypass the password screen.

If someone could "persuade" Dale into having some kind of way to block this (e.g. registry entry, text file in DHPOS directory, etc.) you would be in the clear.

The only other way I can think of would be to have an external application that automatically restarts DHPOS as soon as a user quits, as well as disables the X button. You might want to have a log built in as well.

P.S. I would like to ask that no one ask me to write this kiosk software. While I am aware how, my schedule to too busy and I am personally afraid I would screw up your system beyond repair.

[Jonathan Simpson]

If it's windows 2000 or XP, you can also check the system uptime to prove that no power outage took place. Go to a command prompt window and type "systeminfo" to find it.

[Kaz]

the user can still Ctrl+Alt+Del out of it, and, second, there is a certain easy way to bypass the password screen.

There is also a regedit to disable the task manager under windows xp.

[Jonathan Simpson]

I have software.... somewhere, that disables task manager from running. it's for stuff like this. I've worked in the past on desktop security applications.

Ideally, POS should be very difficult to kill, and the utilities to do so should be nearly inaccessible. I'll see what i can dig up, as this is something I've worked on in the past.

[ProDeZigner]

So, yeah, I have a friend who specializes in programming, he's been doing it for fourteen years. He's got a program called 'Sentry' and it's a lockdown solution for your PC... if you guys want, I can see if he'll make a watered down version to lock all those functions for us...