Password cracking (xp, 2003)

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I have a time sheet template which has some print macros attached. The person who put this together did a fair enough job but I want to write formulas so the employees could key in the in and out and the template would calculate the hours. Anyway, the author password protected the worksheet and he is no longer with the company. Are their any programs to aid in cracking the password or getting around the password so I can automate the timesheet.

Thanks

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(Edited by AlanMiller on 19-Jul-05 22:10. )

Sorry, didn’t notice that vital word: “protected the worksheet” until Jan Karel’s response.

If you Google Search: excel 2003 vba password you’ll find quite a few programs claiming to do the job. Any of the offerings will probably so crippled as to deem them pretty useless, other than for demo purposes. In other words, it’ll probably cost ya!

Alan

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If you want to purchase a cracking package, I can recommend Ultimate Zip Cracker. It is easy to use. Some of the passwords I have encountered to open the workbook were quite long but it didn’t take very long to get the password.

http://www.vdgsoftware.com/index.html%5B/url%5D

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(Edited by macropod on 20-Jul-05 19:56. correct attribution to JKP)

This code removes worksheet protection:

Sub UnProtectAllSheets()
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
Dim oSheet As Worksheet
Dim wsActvSht As Worksheet
Set wsActvSht = ActiveSheet
For Each oSheet In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets
oSheet.Protect “”, , , , True
oSheet.Range(“A1”).Copy oSheet.Range(“A1”)
Next oSheet
wsActvSht.Activate
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub

JKP’s version also gives you a useable password that you can restore the original with.

Note: The above code fails if Cell A1 is merged. In that case, change the cell references in the code to an unmerged cell.

Cheers

Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

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I saw this code before and I’ve used it successfully in previous versions of Excel but it doesn’t work at all in xl2003 – at least for me. I just now re-tested it and created a new workbook (empty), three sheets. I protected each sheet with “deb” and then ran this code. No errors, it just didn’t unprotect anything. I guess MS has finally filled that security hole. I had 2-3 other tricks that I got from this lounge in the last few years and none of those work to break the sheet password in xl2003.

I also tried the other password breaking code from JKP. I ran that in the same workbook (xl2003) and it said one useable password was “AAAAAAAAAAA”. I then pasted that into the password prompt to unprotect the sheet and it failed.

Did either of these work for you?

Deb

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Oops, there is a mistake in the code. I edited the post to correct it.

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Great!! This now worked in xl2003 (I just had a short 3-char password, no special characters) and it took probably 10+ seconds or so but it’s a nice to have trick as most casual users use simple passwords anyway. And for a moment there I thought MS finally fixed their too easy to break protection method — silly me.

Deb

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You could try the AllInternalPasswords macro from McGimpsey & Associates. It uses the same algorithm as shown in Jan Karel’s post but you only have to run it once to remove passwords on all the sheets.

An alternative is the free “Find lost passwords” add-in from Erlandsen Data Consulting. Again this one removes all the passwords in one go and is very quick.

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Loved the article by McGimpsy – I always wondered by the returned passwords were so similar in format.

Deb

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### Edited July 21 2005, corrected an error in the test to see whether the sheet is unprotected.

This code removes worksheet protection:

Sub PasswordBreaker()
'Breaks worksheet password protection.
Dim i As Integer, j As Integer, k As Integer
Dim l As Integer, m As Integer, n As Integer
Dim i1 As Integer, i2 As Integer, i3 As Integer
Dim i4 As Integer, i5 As Integer, i6 As Integer

On Error Resume Next
For i = 65 To 66: For j = 65 To 66: For k = 65 To 66
For l = 65 To 66: For m = 65 To 66: For i1 = 65 To 66
For i2 = 65 To 66: For i3 = 65 To 66: For i4 = 65 To 66
For i5 = 65 To 66: For i6 = 65 To 66: For n = 32 To 126
ActiveSheet.Unprotect Chr(i) & Chr(j) & Chr(k) & _
Chr(l) & Chr(m) & Chr(i1) & Chr(i2) & Chr(i3) _
& Chr(i4) & Chr(i5) & Chr(i6) & Chr(n)
If ActiveSheet.ProtectContents = False Then
MsgBox "One usable password is " & Chr(i) & Chr(j) _
& Chr(k) & Chr(l) & Chr(m) & Chr(i1) & Chr(i2) _
& Chr(i3) & Chr(i4) & Chr(i5) & Chr(i6) & Chr(n)
Exit Sub
End If
Next: Next: Next: Next: Next: Next
Next: Next: Next: Next: Next: Next
End Sub

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Along the same lines, what about the times when they have protected the VBA data?

Any good methods to get these unprotected?

Thanks,
Brad

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If VBA code is password-protected, this is usually done to protect the author’s intellectual property. Cracking the password is often unethical.
Apart from that, a VBA password is much harder to crack than a worksheet password. If you search Google for lost vba password you’ll find many utilities that claim to be able to do so, but I have no experience with any of them.

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Hans,
I understand the Authors intellectual property portion, but I am specifically looking at instances where I have an employee that has protected the VBA, and has since moved on. The Code technically belongs to the company, as the proper documents have been signed to indicate all “intellectual property” developed on Company owned equipment for company use belongs to the company.

Thanks for the heads-up,

Brad

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Any decent commercial software will break a VBA password instantly (technically it just removes it rather than cracking it) and you can also do it with a hex editor with a little bit of work.

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