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For all versions of Excel before 97, it can easily be cracked. For all
Office 97 and later products. it depends on how well the password was
chosen. There is a Moscow, Russian company which specializes in cracking
protected documents. Their software uses various forms of attack. This is
for the Excel password cracker:
http://www.elcomsoft.com/ae2000pr.html
If you chose a single word for the password, you can do a dictionary attack.
Their software is also capable of entering all permuted forms of all the
words in the dictionary text file you select: password, Password, PASSWORD,
PaSsWoRd, pAsSwOrD, etc... The dictionary which comes with their software
isn't complete. This is a complete unabridged dictionary of the entire
english language. It is Zipped:
http://www.phreak.com/archives/wordlists/dictionaries/Unabr.dict.Z
To carry out a full, unabridged, "dictionary attack" using all permutations
with a 1400 (266 DDR) MHz Athlon would take approx. 45 minutes. You don't
want to do a "brute force" attack unless you're forced to. A brute force
attack could take a year to complete, depending on how long the password is.
The cracker costs $30 if you want to enable all the features.
Daniel.
Ross S Bond wrote:
> Hello Bill,
>
> I have been told by a M$ support person that it was not possible,
> however that was some years ago. I'm sure there must be some way -
> good luck.
>
> --
> Best regards,
> Ross mail to: ross.bond@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> Sunday, May 26, 2002, 12:43:38 PM, you wrote:
>
> BV> Can anyone recommend a recovery tool for extracting a password from a
> BV> password protected Excel file?
>
> BV> Best,
>
> BV> Bill
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