Can I Crack A Password Protected Microsoft Word File
Andra Haan
Microsoft Word's password-protect functionality is designed to prevent edits and modification to templates and other important documents. However, it can be a real pain if you need to edit or change a document and either don't have the password or have forgotten it. Word's password protection isn't very secure, however, and is easily broken with a quick shift in format.
If someone sends you a password-protected Word document, chances are good there's a reason for the lock. Sometimes businesses use them to protect core templates and sometimes they're in place to ensure marketing materials aren't edited before they go live. If you think you should have access to a document but do not, speak with your supervisor or the document creator to find out why.
If you're concerned about end-users in your organization losing access to password protected Office files, the DocRecrypt tool might be for you. Note that you have to deploy the DocRecrypt tool BEFORE the file in question is password protected. DocRecrypt can't retroactively recover files that were password protected before you deployed DocRecrypt. For more information see: Remove or reset file passwords using DocRecrypt.
Microsoft Office files can be password-protected in order to prevent tampering and ensure data integrity. But password-protected documents from earlier versions of Office are susceptible to having their hashes extracted with a simple program called office2john. Those extracted hashes can then be cracked using John the Ripper and Hashcat.
Extracting the hash from a password-protected Microsoft Office file takes only a few seconds with the office2john tool. While the encryption standard across different Office products fluctuated throughout the years, none of them can stand up to office2john's hash-stealing abilities.
This tool is written in Python and can be run right from the terminal. As for Office compatibility, it's known to work on any password-protected file from Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Project, Access, and Outlook that was created using Office 97, Office 2000, Office XP, Office 2003, Office 2007, Office 2010, and Office 2013, including the Office for Mac versions. It may not work on newer versions of Office, though, we saved a DOCX in Office 2016 that was labeled as Office 2013.
Next, we need an appropriate file to test this on. I am using a simple DOCX file named "dummy.docx" that I created and password-protected with Word 2007. Download it to follow along. The password is "password123" as you'll find out. You can also download documents made with Word 2010 and Word 2016 (that shows up as 2013) to use for more examples. Passwords for those are also "password123."
Set the --wordlist flag with the location of your favorite word list. The one that is included with Nmap will do for our purposes here, but for tougher passwords, you may want to go with a more extensive word list.
John will start cracking, and depending on the password complexity, will finish when a match is found. Press almost any key to view the current status. When the hash is cracked, a message will be displayed on-screen with the document's password: Since our password was pretty simple, it only took seconds to crack it.
When it comes to password cracking of any kind, the best defense technique is to use password best practices. This means using unique passwords that are long and not easily guessable. It helps to utilize a combination of upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols, although recent research has shown that simply using long phrases with high entropy is superior. Even better are long, randomly generated passwords which makes cracking them nearly impossible.
In regards to this specific attack, using Microsoft Office 2016 or 2019 documents or newer may not be effective, since office2john is designed to work on earlier versions of Office. However, as you can see above, Office 2016 may very well spit out a 2013 document without the user even knowing, so it doesn't mean a "new" file can't be cracked. Plus, there are still plenty of older Microsoft Office documents floating around out there, and some organizations continue to use these older versions, making this attack still very feasible today.
Today, we learned that password-protected Microsoft Office files are not quite as secure as one would be led to believe. We used a tool called office2john to extract the hash of a DOCX file, and then cracked that hash using John the Ripper and Hashcat. These types of files are still commonly used today, so if you come across one that has a password on it, rest easy knowing that there is a way to crack it.
In this section, we will outline several methods on how to crack word password protected document without installing any third-party software. Implement them one-by-one and at least one of them will get the job done for you.
This workaround for cracking the Word password has been in the market for quite some time now. Visual Basic for Applications or VBA is an extension of visual basic file and it adds to the functionality of MS office.
In any case, they can still help you achieve your purpose. Which website you should choose depends on your individual preferences and requirements. Here. We will walk you through a step-by-step guide on how to bypass Word password via LostMyPass.com.
LostMyPass is a trusted service to regain access to your restricted Word files. The website claims to have a success ratio of 61% for premium version - which is not satisfactory. Check out yourself how to how to crack password of Word file via LostMyPass.
To wrap it up, this article has provided a comprehensive guide on how to crack Word document password without software. All the methods discussed in this guide are tested and tried and can help you get the job done with ease.
If you have lost the password for your Word document, you may be stuck on the best way to recover the password. Word password tools are very effective in recovering Word passwords, but you have to pay for them and install them on your computer. If you don't want to use any software, there are several ways you can find back Word document password without software. In fact, in this article we are going to share with you some options.
So far, using an online password helper to recover Word password without software is the easiest way. Online tools like LostMyPass can help you achieve this goal. But it is important to note that most of these tools are not very effective solution since they have a very low success rate and the safety of the data on the document is not guaranteed.
The second way to recover Word password without using any software is to modify the document's details. This method only works when there is no opening password on your document. Here's how to do that:
You can also use the VBA code method to find back a Word document password. If your password is within 3 characters, the password can be recovered within minutes. However, if your Word document is protected with a b password which is longer than 3 characters, the VBA code won't respond. Follow these simple steps to do it:
The above solutions may all be good ways to recover word document password without software, but what if the three methods don't work for you? A Word document password recovery software will be a better solution for you. Here, we highly recommend Passper for Word to you. This is a powerful password recovery tool that has served more than 100,000 users all over the world.
Once the document is open, you need to select an attack mode to use when recovering the password. Each of the modes is useful for certain situations. The attack mode you choose depends on how much information you have about the password.
The solutions in this article can be useful when you don't want to download any software to recover the Word document password. Select a solution you trust will work for you and implement it fully using the steps we've outlined for each solution. If you want a faster solution, use Passper for Word. If you have any questions on this topic, use the comments section below and we'll do our best to find useful solutions for you.
Copy sheet into New Tab, Paste so looks exactly like sheet copied (password protect did not copy over to new sheet), double check matches data in prev sheet. Delete original sheet and rename copied one same as original. Password Protect this new sheet (if you wish) making sure you 'write it down' ; - )
Hi Nikolino, I can see you have been able to assist with Excel Spreadsheets with forgotten unprotect passwords. I have the same issue as I created a spreadsheet months ago, have not looked at it since and I've now forgotten the password. Would you be able to assist with recovering the password?
Another thank you! I had a real estate sales agreement for that was in (.doc) format and had end-user fillable fields, all of the existing text on the form was protected. I needed to change the wording of the protected text and the your method for removing the protection worked exactly as described.
After saving a document and you add a password to it by using the Protect Document option, it means you added the complete document protection. This protection prevents external users from viewing and editing if they do not have the password.
If the Word document was locked to prevent editing, changing the text format to Rich Text format can possibly remove the password. However, this can only work if you are using Microsoft Office Pro 2010.
However, keep in mind that uploading an important, confidential work document to a strange password-remover website is not the best privacy and safety practice. Additionally, we cannot comment on the safety of these tools.
Now the Microsoft word document is one of the most used types of document files when it comes to writing textual documents and commonly contain sensitive information including your business data and personal privacy. It is used widely in several work related issues and is also one of the most preferred forms of uses and thus it is imperative that the document is protected and kept safe from the hands and the interference of others. Now one must make sure that the password that you are providing is complicated and uncommon so that people are not easily able to crack it. Nonetheless in situations when you have forgotten the password, it can be very frustrating and intimidating.
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