Unprotect Excel Sheet with Brute-Force Attack and Masking Technique

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MS Excel provide many features to manage and analyze large volume of data. Graphical representation tools and inbuilt (mathematical, financial, statistical and logical) functions make it very easy for everyone to analyze and summarize data without any special expertise. Besides so many user friendly features, MS Excel also provides a very useful security feature called “Password Protection” to prevent unauthorized access (or modification) of valuable data. This password protection feature of MS Excel allows User to protect entire workbook, individual sheet or cells of a file. 

Many times it happens that Excel user forget the password enabled by them to protect their worksheet. In such situation it is really very difficult to unprotect excel sheet without password remover software. I searched a lot to find methods of removing excel password without software but did not get even a single method which can do this. From my search I analysed that almost all the excel password remover software are based on two features: Brute-Force Attack Technique and Masking Technique.

Let me explain you how Brute-Force Attack and Masking Technique help to unprotect excel sheet. 

Brute-Force Attack Technique – This technique involves making all possible permutations of characters (lower case letters, upper case letters, special characters, numbers) of your password. All excel password breaker software provides you the option to specify the probable length and characters in your password. On the basis of the password length and characters all possible permutations are made and run through for checking. Total time taken by software to recover excel password directly depends on the total number of permutations (which in turn depends on the length and complexity of your password). 

For example if your password is 3 characters long and include numbers, Upper case and lower case letters then there will be total 62 * 62 * 62 = 238328 guesses or permutations (Here 62 = 26 lower case letters +26 upper case letters + 10 numbers).

Masking Technique – Many time it happens that user remember first few (or any) characters of their password but not able to recall full password. In such situation Masking Technique allows user to specify the initial (remember) characters and replace the unknown characters by '?'. This helps Brute-Force process to search for the unknown characters only and hence reduces the time to crack excel password. 

Overall we can say that because of Brute-Force Attack and Masking Technique excel password remover software has very high success rate. So, if you forget your excel file password then you can use any excel password recovery software based on Brute-Force Attack and Masking Technique.

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Excel Password Remover to Reset Password of Protected Excel File

Dock icon for Excel 2011 for Mac (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Are you searching for an option to protect your Microsoft Excel sheet? Or you do not want any one to make any alteration in your MS-Workbook? Or you do not want anyone to even open your MS-Excel sheet until and unless you provide him/her a password? Then don't worry! This is possible with latest versions of Microsoft office. Confidentiality and privacy are the two words which developed the need of password protection in your Microsoft Office Suit applications. Therefore, you can save your important Microsoft Excel sheet in three different manners like:

• Password To Open: Applying this utility no one can even open your excel sheet until and unless he/she has the password. You can do this via Save As>>Tools>>Security Options and an existing one Main Menu>>Tools>>Options>>Security.
• Password To Modify: So, after applying this protection, you can protect your Excel sheet from unwanted changes. Thus, the people who only know the password can make alterations in your MS-Excel sheet. To do so go to Tools>>Protect Document or Unprotect Document

However, to remember a lot of password is out of the strength of humans and provide the same password to different files does also not make sense. Hence, various big organizations which use password to protect their Excel sheets also provide use MS Excel password recovery tool.

Let me tell you my example. I joined a new office last week, the person whose work I have to handle, had protected some of his Excel files and went without telling their password to anyone. However, to start the work I have to view few of them. The situation became worse when I found out that I can not even open some of the very important files. I immediately told the whole situation to my Team Lead and he recommended me to contact the system administration department. I contacted them and told them the case. Therefore, to recover Excel password, they installed a password recovery software in my computer and in just few clicks and short time I all of the passwords were saved in the text document format at the prescribed location in my computer.

An efficient Excel password remover software can recover both the passwords 'to open' and 'to modify'. These software use Brute-Force attack mechanism to give you 100% result. The software which I used provides various parameters that help to narrow down the search for Excel password. Hence, most of the software can recover the password from Excel sheets created in MS Excel 2007, 2003, 2002, and 2000.

READ MORE - Excel Password Remover to Reset Password of Protected Excel File

Remove Excel Password with 7-zip (Free Tool)

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Losing excel password is a pathetic situation. Without having correct password you could not access your important excel sheet. To recover lost excel password you have two ways

1. Use some password recovery manual method.
2. Use excel password recovery paid software.

Using excel password recovery software is easy but expensive method. Before using paid tool first try all other ways to recover lost password. Here I am going to explain you a very effective way to remove excel password.

To use this method you first need to change the file extension of your excel file from .xls/xlsx to .zip. Few computer users find it difficult to change file extension in windows 7 so I am explaining here, how you can change extension of any file.

1. Open drive where file is stored.

2. Click on Organize > Folder and Search Option.

3. In Folder Option > Click on View.

4. Uncheck “Hide extensions for know file types”, click Apply > OK.

5. Now rename your desire file with your desire extension.

Remove excel password: 7-zip is a open source tool which you can download free from Internet. Download it and follow steps written below...

1. Download and Install 7-zip tool (free tool).
2. Change extension of excel file from .xls/.xlsx to .zip.
3. Now Open it with 7-zip.
4. Go to worksheet 1 of workbook by clicking XL-worksheet.
5. Right click on it and click on Edit.
6. Now search for >password< or password and delete all data related to password and save.
7. Now revert its extension from .zip to .xls/.xlsx.

You need to follow each step to complete the removal of excel password. Some times when you try to edit workbook it will show some garbage value that means 7-zip is not compatible with your operating system. Download correct version of 7-zip for hassle free excel password removal.

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Recover Password of Protected Excel Wordbook by Using Password Revealer

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To improve security in MS Excel and protect your workbooks from unnecessary modification by unauthorized users, Microsoft has introduced advanced password-protection. You can secure your whole workbook or some specific elements in your workbook by applying a password. Only authenticated users will have the right to make changes to the workbook or its individual elements. You can apply two different types of passwords to an Excel workbook: 'Password To Open' and 'Password To Modify'.

The 'Password To Open' feature can be used to prevent the illicit or unwanted users from opening the Excel workbook. This feature uses any of the standard encryption methods to secure data in the file. You can do this via Save As>>Tools>>Security Options and an existing one Main Menu>>Tools>>Options>>Security. Additionally, if you want to keep other users from changing the structure of your Excel workbook, you can use the 'Password To Modify' feature. With this feature, you can define a guideline for others and then, they need to follow this guideline for modifying the content or formatting of your workbook. To do so, go to Tools and choose Protect Document or Unprotect Document.

However, if there are a hell lot of passwords, there is always a high risk of losing these passwords. These passwords will keep on clogging up your brain and consequently, you forget them when trying to unlock your password-protected Excel workbooks. At this stage, you need to take help of professional MS Excel password recovery software.

Let me tell you my example. I joined at a new office last week. The person who left the organization had protected some of his Excel files. He didn't tell the passwords to anyone. However, I had to use those files in order to start my work. But, I found out that I cannot even open some of the important files. I immediately narrated the whole situation to my Team Lead and he recommended me to contact the system administration department. I contacted them and told them this problem. To recover Excel password, they installed a password recovery software on my computer and it was all over in just a few clicks. All the passwords were saved in the text document at a specified location in my system.

An efficient Excel password recovery software can easily recover both: 'password to open' and 'password to modify' set to your Excel workbook. These software use Brute-Force attack mechanism to give you the recovered password with 100% accuracy. The software which I used provided me various options to narrow down the Excel password search. 

READ MORE - Recover Password of Protected Excel Wordbook by Using Password Revealer

How to Solve an Error Which Pop Up While Opening Password-Protected xlsx

Password-protected excel (.xlsx)file sometime refuse to open with correct password and gives an error message such as "Excel cannot open the file "(Name).xlsx" because the file format or file extension is not valid. Verify that the file has not been corrupted and that the file extension matches the format of the file". With this error message you can easily figure out that your file does not have valid file extension that's why it could not open with correct password. In this situation you can use two methods first try to figure out the exact problem and then fix it. Second use excel password remover to remove password from excel file.

Cause of The Problem: Above error message occurs due to two causes

1. File corruption : If excel file (with .xlsx extension) get corrupt then it is possibility that it would not accept your password because encrypted password file is also get corrupt due excel file corruption.
2. File Extension Get Changed: When you are sending excel file (.xlsx ) for review, above problem will occurs. The workbook file is saved as an Excel binary workbook. However, the workbook has an .xlsx extension that is appended to the file. That's why above error message will appears even when you are inserting correct password.

Solution : This problem have very simple solution, when you are sending password-protected excel file (.xlsx) any where then try to save excel file in the following formats which are listed below...

1. Excel Binary Workbook (*.xlsb)
   
2. Excel 97-2003 Workbook (*.xls)
   

Above solution will resolve error message which you are getting and you will able to open password-protected file with your correct password.

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Are you aware of Excel Password Types?

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We all must have heard very frequently about types of files but have you ever heard about types of Excel password. Let me share more about it so that you can be aware about it. MS Excel is has five types of password security through which you can protect important data of Excel worksheets. You can protect your excel worksheet with 5 different types of password protection methods.

I am specially writing this article only for those respective readers who are searching for the effective method to secure excel worksheets. This share information can benefit to accountants, charted accountants, brokers, stenos and every other individual who use MS excel to maintain all the records and calculation for their particular activities. 

Types of Excel password

Type1. Password to open the Worksheet

Type2. Password for Modifications

Type3. VBA Modules Password

Type4. Worksheet Password

Type5. Workbook Password

1. Password to open the Worksheet:

You can assign passwords to the excel worksheets and prevent any individual from accessing it. Follow these steps:

• Open the .xls document to make it password protect.

• Go to File Menu and Select the Save As option.

• Go to Tools tab on the top of the Save As window and choose the General Options… option.

• You will see Save Options window, then enter the desired password in the Password to open text box.

This way you have protected the Excel worksheet. So in future if any unauthorized user wanted to open the worksheet then Microsoft Excel will ask to enter the same password. Without correct password it will never open. This way you have protected your excel worksheet.

2. Need Password to Modify Excel Worksheet 

It is similar to previous option. In this method if you have anything to modify on the excel worksheet you need to enter the password to modify the excel worksheet file. This way we can protect excel worksheet from any change in the data or figures which were entered before. Here are the simple steps: 

• Open the .xls document to make it password protect.

• Go to file menu and Select Save As option.

• Go to Tools tab on the top of the Save As window and select the General Options… option.

• You will get the Save Options window in display, you just need to enter the desired password to protect the excel worksheet from any modification. Once you have entered the password then your excel worksheet be protected with password and restricted for unauthorized user.

Any modification will be possible through authorized individuals only, with whom you may share the password. 

3. VBA Modules Password: 

Use of macros in Excel sheet makes various calculations very easy. We can save time for long calculation & reports managing by implementing some important macros. In Excel we use VBA modules to set the macros in the file. You can also protect excel sheet so that Visual Basic for Application module cannot be changed by any unauthorized user. To make VBA modules password protected, you need to follow these steps:

• Select the VBA module and right-click the mouse button.

• Select the VBA Project Properties… option.

• Click the Protection tab.

• In this window, check the Lock project for viewing option and assign password in the Password to view project properties dialogue box.

• Click OK.

The VBA module is now protected with password and secure from any unauthorized use.

4. Worksheet Password: 

We can also protect several worksheets in a single .xls file like Sheet 1, Sheet 2 and so on... To make them password protected you need to follow these simple steps:

• Go to Tools menu

• Choose Protection > Protect Sheet option. You will see the Protect Sheet window

• Select amongst the number of options for your worksheet. (These options depend on the working version of MS Excel; I am working in MS Excel 2003)

• After selecting the options you can assign password to the worksheet.

5. Workbook Password: 

Like Worksheets, excel workbooks can also be protected in the similar way of protecting worksheets.

• Go to Tools menu

• Choose Protection > Protect Workbook option. You will see The Protect Workbook window.

• Choose both or appropriate option from Structure and Windows and assign the password.

You can also check this:

• Go to Tools menu.

• Select the Protection > Protect and Share Workbook… option. The Protect Shared Workbook window will be displayed. This enables you to share the workbook with track changes.

• Check the Sharing with track changes option. This would activate the Password text box.

• Assign password in the Password text box.

These are the 5 methods or tips of password protection which can help you to save your excel sheet access from unauthorized user. 

I am sure you will apply these methods to save your excel worksheet data from unauthorized users. It is quite possible sometimes we forgot the saved password or set password in such situation you can use third party PasswordRecovery software to restore or reset the forgotten passwords of excel files.

READ MORE - Are you aware of Excel Password Types?