>>>In several places in our application executable we have hooks that call custom, external, encrypted programs whose names are stored in a table.
>>>
>>>Recently, a new custom program needed to USE a confidential free table that is included in the executable, and VFP couldn't find it.
>>>
>>>Is there any way that we can force the external program to look for the table inside the exe file?
>>>
>>>TIA,
>>>
>>>Alex
>>
>>Yes, create a function like DoCmd in your exe, preferably in the main procedure file which is startup at runtime..
>>
>>

>>FUNCTION DoCmd(cCommand)
>>
>>&cCommand
>>ENDFUNC

>>
>>Then you can call the following from an outside PRG
>>
>>

>>DoCmd("USE MyInternalTable")
>>

>
>In terms of security, this approach is a problem. You can do almost anything from that point.
>

>DoCmd("DO my.prg") 
>

>will work too. Instantiate classes? Open forms? Mimic existing stuff into something new? You have full control from that point. See what you can do in terms of compiling and creating at run time. That's huge.
>
>Never ever do that.
>And don't argue nobody knows your structure. This is named security through obscurity.

Ehh, Sorry but from a security POV I fail to see what would be the difference in having the possibility to do whatever you like in an outside PRG and exploiting functionality from within the executable. There really is not difference between the two.