Sui — Credential Handling (User ID and Password)¶

Overview¶

By default, Sui keeps credentials in memory only for the duration of the session. The password is never written to disk unless the user explicitly chooses to save it. This is intentional and is the recommended mode of operation for all corporate and security-sensitive environments.

Credentials are sourced from two places — the Connection Manager (per-URL profiles) and the Startup Preferences (generic defaults) — with a clear priority order.

Credential sources¶

Source A — Connection Manager profiles (`SuiConnProp.pro`)¶

The Connection Manager stores named connection profiles under:

SUI.CONN.<alias>.USERID     — user ID for this connection
SUI.CONN.<alias>.PW         — password (only written when Auto-login = Y)
SUI.CONN.<alias>.AUTOLOGIN  — Y / N

USERID is always written to disk when saved (if non-empty).
PW is written only when Auto-login is ticked. Without Auto-login the sentinel value null is stored in its place and the password field is blank on startup.
BigQuery profiles: the Auto-login checkbox and password field are disabled in ConnManager because BigQuery uses OAuth web-login and does not accept a stored password.

Source B — Startup Preferences (`SuiSys.pro`)¶

The generic preferences panel stores:

SUI.USERID   — default user ID (applies when no per-URL profile exists)
SUI.PW       — default password (applies when no per-URL profile exists)
SUI.AUTOC    — Y / N: auto-connect at startup using the generic credentials

Special values for SUI.USERID:

Value	Behaviour
`?`	Replaced at startup with the OS-logged-on username (`user.name`).
`?L`	Same as `?` but also makes the userid field non-editable.

Source C — Session cache (`TmpProp2`, memory only)¶

Once the user connects, the credentials are cached in the in-memory TmpProp2 map:

SUI.PW.<userid>.<url>  →  password used for this userid + URL combination

TmpProp2 is never written to disk and is cleared on JVM exit. It is used to restore credentials silently when switching back to a URL that was already connected during the current session.

Note on TmpProp: The TmpProp map is persisted to TmpProp.pro between sessions. It previously stored SUI.USERID.<url> entries from prior sessions. At startup these are now purged before the URL list is populated so that stale values from a previous session cannot override the credential priority rules below.

Credential priority at startup and on URL selection¶

The same three-level priority applies both when Sui starts (first URL in the combo) and whenever the user selects a different URL:

Level 1 — ConnManager profile for the selected URL¶

If the selected URL matches a saved alias in SuiConnProp.pro and that alias has a non-empty USERID:

The profile userid is placed in the Uid field.
If AUTOLOGIN=Y and a password is stored: the password is pre-filled and (at startup only) an automatic connect is attempted.
If AUTOLOGIN=N (or no password stored): the password field is left blank.

Level 2 — Generic startup preferences (fallback)¶

If the selected URL has no matching profile, or the profile has no userid:

SUI.USERID from preferences is used (with ? / ?L expansion).
SUI.PW from preferences is used as the password.
At startup: if SUI.AUTOC=Y and the password is non-empty, an automatic connect is attempted.

Level 3 — Neither source has credentials¶

Both Uid and Pw fields are set to blank. No auto-connect is attempted.

Override: `SUI.SETPWBLANK=Y`¶

When the preference Set PW blank if not connected (SUI.SETPWBLANK=Y) is enabled it takes precedence over Levels 1 and 2:

The password field is always cleared on startup and on every URL selection.
Auto-login is suppressed regardless of the profile's AUTOLOGIN setting.
The user must type the password manually before connecting.

Credential groups¶

Connections can optionally be tagged with a shared Group label in the Connection Manager (see ConnManager.md). Aliases that carry the same group label are assumed to use the same userid and password.

This only affects behaviour on URL selection (not at startup, since no alias has been connected yet in a fresh session):

On every successful Sui.ConnDB(), the userid/password just used are recorded as the group's session credentials:
```
SUI.GROUPUID.<group>   in TmpProp2   (memory only)
SUI.GROUPPW.<group>    in TmpProp2   (memory only)
```
This happens in addition to, not instead of, the normal per-URL session cache (SUI.PW.<uid>.<url> / SUI.USERID.<url>) described above.
When the user switches to a different URL, its group is looked up. If the group already has session credentials recorded (i.e. another alias in the group was already connected this session) and the newly-selected URL itself has not yet been connected this session, the group's userid and password are filled in. This check runs immediately after the per-URL session-cache check and before Level 1 (ConnManager profile) — so it is honored even when SUI.SETPWBLANK=Y would otherwise force the password blank, and even if the target alias's own profile has AUTOLOGIN=N or no stored password at all.
If the selected URL was already connected earlier in the same session, its own remembered credentials (per-URL session cache) are used instead — the group never overrides a URL's own session history.
A URL with no Group label configured is completely unaffected by this logic.

Manual connect — `Sui.ConnDB()`¶

When the user clicks Connect (or presses Ctrl+D):

The current Uid and Pw field values are used for the JDBC connection.
On success, credentials are written to the session cache:
```
SUI.PW.<userid>.<url>   in TmpProp2   (memory only)
SUI.USERID.<url>        in TmpProp    (persisted to TmpProp.pro)
```
If the connected URL belongs to a credential group, SUI.GROUPUID.<group> / SUI.GROUPPW.<group> in TmpProp2 are updated as well (see Credential groups above).
These cache entries are consulted first on subsequent URL selections within the same session so the user is not re-prompted.

Session-level in-memory cache¶

Several components re-use the per-session cache to avoid re-prompting:

Component	Key written	Key read
`Sui.ConnDB()`	`SUI.PW.<uid>.<url>` in `TmpProp2`	—
`ConnDB.getConn()`	`SUI.PW.<uid>.<url>` in `TmpProp2`	—
`TabbedPaneClassic`	`PW.<tabNo>` in `TmpProp2`	`PW.<tabNo>` in `TmpProp2`
`ProfProp`	—	`SUI.PW.<uid>.<url>` in `TmpProp2`
`AppendToTable`, `SQLSeqComp`	—	`SUI.PW.<uid>.<url>` in `TmpProp2`

Alt-key profiles (Alt+0 … Alt+9)¶

Up to ten named connection profiles can be configured, each storing a userid, password, URL and desktop prefix under SUI.USERID, SUI.PW, SUI.URLX etc. at index k in SysProp. Selecting Alt+k calls setAltKey(k), which reads SUI.PW at index k and populates the Pw field.

Paths to disk — where passwords can be written¶

ConnManager (Auto-login=Y)  →  PutConnProp("SUI.CONN.<alias>.PW", ...)  →  ConnProp
                                                                                ↓
                                                               StoreConnProp() writes SuiConnProp.pro

Propm / PropmLogin           →  PutAppProp("SUI.PW", ...)               →  SysProp
                                                                                ↓
                                                               StoreProp()  writes SuiSys.pro

Warning: Both SuiConnProp.pro and SuiSys.pro are plain-text Java Properties files in the Sui home directory. Any password stored there is readable by anyone with file-system access. Do not save passwords in corporate, shared, or security-sensitive environments. Leave Auto-login off and the password blank in the preferences dialogs; type the password at each session start instead.

Summary table — where the password lives¶

Store	Object	File	Written to disk?	Cleared on exit?
`ConnProp`	`Properties`	`SuiConnProp.pro`	Only when Auto-login=Y in ConnManager	No — persists across sessions
`SysProp`	`Properties`	`SuiSys.pro`	Only if user saves in Preferences	No — persists across sessions
`TmpProp2` (session cache)	`Properties`	(none)	Never	Yes — JVM exit
`TmpProp` (session/url uid cache)	`Properties`	`TmpProp.pro`	Yes, but purged at next startup	Purged at startup
`Pw` Swing field	`JPasswordField`	(none)	Never	Yes — JVM exit
`Passw` static field	`String`	(none)	Never	Yes — JVM exit

Recommendations¶

Prefer ConnManager profiles over generic preferences for per-database credentials. Enable Auto-login only on machines where SuiConnProp.pro is adequately protected.
Use SUI.USERID=? or SUI.USERID=?L in preferences so the OS login name is used automatically without storing anything.
Enable Set PW blank if not connected (SUI.SETPWBLANK=Y) in environments where passwords must never be pre-filled from disk.
Protect the Sui home directory with appropriate OS-level file permissions so that SuiSys.pro and SuiConnProp.pro are not world-readable.
For high-security environments, prefer JDBC authentication mechanisms that do not require a password in Sui at all (e.g. Kerberos, IAM, OAuth web-login for BigQuery).