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Microsoft Excel worksheet unprotect

 
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CEForumMember
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 21, 2021 10:48 pm    Post subject: Microsoft Excel worksheet unprotect Reply with quote

I am usually able to run a VBA macro which uses brute force to unprotect a sheet that is password protected.
Lately, it either takes too long or doesn't work at all.

I am wondering if it is possible to use a cheat engine to either read the password or eliminate the password.

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Csimbi
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 24, 2021 11:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Unzip, remove XML tag, rezip, enjoy.
No point brute forcing something that ain't needed in the first place.
An Excel hack on the other hand that disables password check would be very educational, as long as it's documented properly.
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 25, 2021 10:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I unzipped it and open/edit the xml file.
I don't know what I am doing and not able to make the sheet unprotected.

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Csimbi
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 26, 2021 4:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Using Google these days is a basic requirement for just about anybody.
Did you even try?
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 27, 2021 9:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I love the straightforward question.
Yes, I did. And after posting my previous response, I did figure out a way.


Here is the long version:
When I posted, I had unzipped the excel file, opened XML, and deleted the line that has sheet protection.
That did not work.
All my Google directions were to do exactly that.

I then had an Idea and created another excel file and password-protected the sheet with a simple password that I can remember. e.g., "A".

I then proceeded to copy-paste the password-protection-line from the XML of a known file to the one where I didn't know the password.
I was then able to unprotect both sheets with the same known password.

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Csimbi
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 27, 2021 10:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

It's just a matter of deleting a very specific XML element.
But, it seems you found yet another way Wink
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 27, 2021 1:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Even though I have a working solution for my current problem, I would still like for anyone knowledgeable enough to help me with a few questions:


1. Is it possible to open the excel file using our cheat engine and do this exact editing in the file? That would eliminate the zipping, extracting, editing, replacing, and all that work.
2. Is it possible to do this exact thing while the file is open in excel and use the cheat engine to change the way excel looks for the password?
3. On a completely different note: Is there a way to convert hash+salt into a text? After countless hours in the online forums, I have come to realize that I may never get the original password back. My current understanding (please correct me) is that these are one-way encryption, meaning that you could have several text strings that can yield the same hash+salt. So from hash+salt, you can't figure out the original one. My question is that is there an algorithm/software that can brute-force another text string that can yield the same hash+salt?

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Last edited by CEForumMember on Sat Nov 27, 2021 5:27 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Csimbi
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 27, 2021 3:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I did not post that stuff here on purpose.
That's the one, save it for yourself but please remove to make sure we don't get into trouble over that.
There are no rows in the XML because there are no line breaks.
I think the software you are using is screwing the file up, and that's causing the problem.
Name the file TXT (instead of XML) and use a text editor instead of an XML editor.
I used plain Notepad and it always worked.
Could also be that your ZIP packer uses different compression settings that Excel expects. I use TotalCommander to copy out just the part I need and copy it back afterwards.

While you can't get the original password back, you CAN find passwords that can be used instead.
I found a VBA script for this earlier that runs in Excel itself, it would pop out a password in just a few seconds.
I doubt you could do this externally because you don't know the exact mechanism in Excel.

I bet that given enough time you could find the code in Excel that initializes the protection and NOP that code with CE. Then, save as... and boom, you have an unprotected sheet.
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 27, 2021 5:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Got it.

I'll give that a try.

I have removed the portion from my previous comment that you asked me to remove.

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