There
are a number of programs readily available for purchase on the web. They
use 2 main techniques. Dictionary and brute force.
If the password is in the dictionary supplied, the
program will probably crack the password in a few minutes or
less.
If you suspect that the person who set the password
used say, 2 characters before and after the dictionary word, you can have it use
a 'mask' to search for all occurrences of xxWORDxx type of passwords. Once
again, if you can constrain the password to dictionary based, the search is fast
and usually successful.
If you know nothing about the password, and the
password could contain numbers, letters (both upper and lower case, there is a
difference) and possibly special characters like !@#$%^&*() then you have a bigger problem. You
have to use a brute force technique. Generally you start the search
for say, all combinations of <= 6 characters in length and let it search for
all alphanumeric and special.
With the assumption you are referring to Excel 97/2000
or XP, the passwords are 'strong'. With 95 and older versions of Excel,
the encryption is horribly implemented and can readily be cracked in seconds no
matter what the password is. A brute force technique of 6 or less
characters can be done in minutes or a few hours. For 7 and 8 digit and
longer...well, you better hope you have time and a number of computers running
at high speed. 7 is not unreasonable (probably a day or less on a modern
PC), but 8 or more digits because a function of days, weeks, months, or
years.
There are also services available on the web
(frequently by the same software vendors that sell the software) that will
'crack' your file for a fee.
Either way, you need to make sure you have the legal
right to access the file.
Search yahoo or google for 'excel password crack'
etc.
Good luck,
Ryan
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Rick Eidson
Sent: Friday, December 21, 2001 12:58 PM
To: CF-List (E-mail)
Subject: [KCFusion] Speadsheet HackI got a Spreadsheet created by a former employee that he password protected. We need the information inside it. Does anyone know a program that will open it or hackit?
Rick
