Suzanne
Sun Oct 01 14:31:09 CDT 2006
This "trick" is to find the password that has been used to "protect" a
document for forms or perhaps tracked changes; these documents can be opened
but not edited without being unprotected. Documents protected this way are
not encrypted. Documents that you need a password to open are encrypted, and
nothing but brute force (which can take weeks) will derive the correct
password.
--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site:
http://word.mvps.org
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"kevo" <kbieri@mail.utexas.edu> wrote in message
news:vcUTg.7881$DU3.1803@tornado.texas.rr.com...
> The problem is that to do this trick, you have to be able to first open
> the document, which is exactly the problem i am trying to fix - i cant
> open it becuase i dont have the password.In other words, The trick is
> supposed to let you change or remove a password that is needed to open a
> word document, but the trick requires that you already know the password
> so that you can open it. I might me misinterpreting something, but i
> havent been able to figure out what.
>
> kevin
>
> aalaan wrote:
> > Perhaps I'm slow, kevo (I've just recovered from illness), but these
> > instructions seem to be exactly what you want to recover your document
> > (although they are probably unwelcome reading to those who thought their
> > documents were totally secure). So when you have your own document that
you
> > want to legitimately recover, what is the problem?
> >
> > "kevo" <kbieri@mail.utexas.edu> wrote in message
> > news:EgSTg.1251$5o5.1117@tornado.texas.rr.com...
> >> I recently lost a password to a MSword document i had saved and while
> >> trying to figure out a way to recover the password i came across these
> >> instructions on numerous websites:
> >>
> >> 1.) Open a protected document in MS Word
> >> 2.) Save as "Web Page (*.htm; *.html)", close Word
> >> 3.) Open html-document in any Text-Editor
> >> 4.) Search "<w:UnprotectPassword>" tag, the line reads something like
> >> that: <w:UnprotectPassword>ABCDEF01</w:UnprotectPassword>
> >> 5.) Keep the "password" in mind
> >> 6.) Open original document (.doc) with any hex-editor
> >> 7.) Search for hex-values of the password (reverse order!)
> >> 8.) Overwrite all 4 double-bytes with 0x00, Save, Close
> >> 9.) Open document with MS Word, Select "Tools / Unprotect Document"
> >> (password is blank)
> >>
> >>
> >> Apperently this is a loophole someone discovered that allows anybody to
> >> gain access to a protected word or excel document.
> >> But why the hell would you be hacking into a protected document to
change
> >> the password if you can already open it to begin with??
> >> This is so stupid.
> >> If anybody can help me with this, i would be greatly appreciated. I
need a
> >> way to regain access to a document and these instructions are not
making
> >> sense to me.
> >>
> >> kevin
> >
> >