Crack Password on .DOC doc

Have a .DOC document , Thus I can read it , save it etc the only thing I cant do is modify it as its got a password protection in it.

For the heck of me I cant remember the password. Does anyone know of any free , or opensource software that can crack the password ?

Searched online but the only MS Word document password cracking tools I have found are pretty pricy. Im against paying lots of money for a utility im only going to be using the once.

If anyone knows of any tools or how I can get the password off so I can modify the document then please let me know

thanks

Hi, a lot depends on the version of Word.

1. Try making a copy with a different name. In XP/2000/NT 4.0 take owneship of the file as well.

2. Try using Open Office or other free Word compatible suite.

3. If it isn't very large then just copy and paste into a new document.

4. Create a new document and try the "import" facility

5. Create an Access table and import it then export/import into a new Word document.

6. Save it as Word 97 and copy it into a new file, then open it and save it as whatever version of Word you are using.

My point is that up until recent versions, MS office was not really security minded. The protections were really to prevent inadvertent modification ;)

I take it you mean you have set a word password.

I actually paid for the software to recover passwords but it does this by brute force or dictionary. Its painfully slow.

If you want to send me the file I will try and recover but don't expect it back any time within the next few days if its 8 characters or more.

It might help if we knew what version of Office/Word it was created in?

If I knew that, I might be able to experiment with the suggestions I made. If you can save a copy as Office 97 (Word 8.0) that would probably be a good starting point, as that version does not offer much in the way of security.

I seem to recall that creating a copy in Word 8.0 got rid of the password protection.

Urgh. I wish people could just use a search engine.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/mywpc/

SNIP
Microsoft Word Password Cracker. Cracks password of encrypted MS Word 97/2000/XP documents, using standard password brute force and RC4 40-bit cracking algorithm.
SNIP

--TH13

Apart from the fact that I do not know what version of Word was used, I can make the following generalisations about most MS Office applications, specifically Word in this case.

There are three levels of protection:

1. File open Protection. This requires a password to open the file in the first instance. Both the file and password are encrypted.

2. File Modification Protection. This requires a password to modify the file, but not to read or copy it. Neither the document nor its password are encrypted. Certainly with earlier versions of Word the creator/owner could turn this off without a password. It was usually pretty trivial to find the password as well.

3. Read Only Recommended Protection. Here there is no password or encryption. The user is prompted to open in read only mode, but can decline.

From what mooret has said, it appears that it is option #2 that has been implemented.

He should be able to create a copy document (Particularly saving as Word 8/Office 97) and take ownership of it. That should either automatically get rid of the protection, or let him remove it from within Word.

I have not examined the tool suggested in detail, but I think that it is aimed at scenario #1 above.

;)

Hi

Thanks for all your replies

In terms fault I can open the document , view it ,save it , just cannot modify it

Not sure what version of word it was created in . Myself I run word 2000 on my computer at the moment.

If anyone can step by step work me thru the process of making it modifiable then please PM me.

Unfortunatley I can't copy the text/images to paste into another document nor can I convert to PDF or anything like that

anyway , looking forwards to somebody sparing a few minutes to help me out

thanks

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mark_boyle2002

I actually paid for the software to recover passwords but it does this by brute force or dictionary. Its painfully slow.

If you want to send me the file I will try and recover but don't expect it back any time within the next few days if its 8 characters or more.

---

Actually expect a password in Office 97 to be cracked within seconds with Passware, and even a later version (in my case 2003) was almost instant, even a fairly complicated one.

I password protected a VBA document and couldn't remember the password, so tried Passware, which was about the only time I've used it. I was amazed just how unsafe any password is in an Office doc .... just don't put your banking password in ;)