Probably VFAQ...

[Invisible]

Hi folks.

I strongly suspect I'm nowhere near the first person to ask this, but...

Password-protected Word document. The password that is supposed to open it
doesn't appear to work. Any way round this? (I presume not, but if you don't
ask...)

Thanks.

 

[Mike Williams [MVP]]

Password-protected Word document. The password that is supposed to
open it doesn't appear to work. Any way round this? (I presume not,
but if you don't ask...)

There are "professional" password-cracking services around if you care to do
some googling. However, as someone wisely pointed out, they're not the sort
of person you'd give your credit card number....

 

[Edward]

You are right, Max.

There are some password breaking programmes around but none - except the
very, very expensive ones - will work with Word, or indeed, any Office app.

The difficulty increases with the type of password - number of characters,
mix of characters, including symbols, etc.

Some companies will do the job for you. However, I was quoted over £1,500 to
*attempt* an Excel document for a professor friend of mine!

Good luck,

Ed

 

[Invisible]

Password-protected Word document. The password that is supposed to

There are "professional" password-cracking services around if you care to do
some googling. However, as someone wisely pointed out, they're not the sort
of person you'd give your credit card number....

*grin* Good point...

I was just wondering if Word's password system is really as secure as it's
supposed to be, that's all... (For example, Windows NT passwords are
supposed to prevent access to a computer you don't have a password for.
However, it is in fact a very simple matter to change any of the local user
passwords to permit access.)

 

[Invisible]

You are right, Max.

There are some password breaking programmes around but none - except the
very, very expensive ones - will work with Word, or indeed, any Office

app.

So breaking the password is the only real option then? (It might turn out
that the user in question just has their Caps-lock on or something silly.)
There isn't a simpler way... lol

I've just crawled through a protected Word document with a hex editor - I
have to admit, I was half-expecting to see the passwords stored away in
cleartext! (Let's face it, Microsoft isn't renowned for high security, eh?)
Sure enough, the document properties (author, title, comments, etc.) are
there in clear text... But the document text itself appears to by encrypted.
(With what I wonder?... Probably DES... lol!) Presumably the "open" password
is hashed, and the hash is used to unlock the decryption key for the main
text... (Anyone have a link to technical details? ;-)

Oh, and WHY does the file have so many zeros in it??? No wonder Word files
are always so huge... (Plus my name appears to be stored in about 6 seperate
places... weird.)

The difficulty increases with the type of password - number of characters,
mix of characters, including symbols, etc.

Yeah, tell me about it... ;-)

Good luck,

Why thankyou

 

[Edward]

You're welcome!

Ed

app.

So breaking the password is the only real option then? (It might turn out
that the user in question just has their Caps-lock on or something silly.)
There isn't a simpler way... lol

I've just crawled through a protected Word document with a hex editor - I
have to admit, I was half-expecting to see the passwords stored away in
cleartext! (Let's face it, Microsoft isn't renowned for high security, eh?)
Sure enough, the document properties (author, title, comments, etc.) are
there in clear text... But the document text itself appears to by encrypted.
(With what I wonder?... Probably DES... lol!) Presumably the "open" password
is hashed, and the hash is used to unlock the decryption key for the main
text... (Anyone have a link to technical details? ;-)

Oh, and WHY does the file have so many zeros in it??? No wonder Word files
are always so huge... (Plus my name appears to be stored in about 6 seperate
places... weird.)


Yeah, tell me about it... ;-)


Why thankyou

 

[Mike Williams [MVP]]

Oh, and WHY does the file have so many zeros in it???

Possibly Unicode text encoding.

No wonder Word files are always so huge... (Plus my name appears to be stored in
about 6 seperate places... weird.)

If you have fast-saves on then some pieces of text will be replicated, and
is more likely the reason for your files being huge.


Mike Williams - Office MVP http://www.mvps.org/faq/

Please respond in the same thread on this newsgroup - not by email!
Include details of your application and Windows versions, plus any
service pack updates. Answers may also be found by reading recent
posts, checking the FAQs or searching the relevant Google archive at.
http://groups.google.com/groups?group=microsoft.public

 

[Mike Williams [MVP]]

For example, Windows NT passwords
are supposed to prevent access to a computer you don't have a
password for.

It depends on the account associated with the password. If it's an admin
account then it will give you access to the computer. If it's something less
than it gives you access to that profile.


Mike Williams - Office MVP http://www.mvps.org/faq/

Please respond in the same thread on this newsgroup - not by email!
Include details of your application and Windows versions, plus any
service pack updates. Answers may also be found by reading recent
posts, checking the FAQs or searching the relevant Google archive at.
http://groups.google.com/groups?group=microsoft.public

 

[Invisible]

Oh, and WHY does the file have so many zeros in it???

Possibly Unicode text encoding.

Parts of the text are Unicode (not all of it though), as evidenced by what
looks like alternating ASCII and zeros.

However, there are large sections of the file with are just pure zeros. (And
also long sequences of 0xFF too...)

If you have fast-saves on then some pieces of text will be replicated, and
is more likely the reason for your files being huge.

I'm told Fast Save is a really effecient way of causing document corruption,
so I have that switched off. But even so, 19KB for 2 lines of text? ;-)