Word®/Excel®/PowerPoint® Password to Open (Office XP/2003)

Microsoft® Office XP, Office 2003 and newer support three different levels of password protection.

Office 97/2000 Compatible Encryption

The default encryption method for Microsoft® Office XP is the Office 97/2000 Compatible Encryption method. This is the proprietary encryption supported by Microsoft® Office 97/2000 (Word® and Excel®). Office 97/2000 Compatible continues to be the default algorithm to ensure backward compatibility and international document portability.

Weak Encryption (XOR)

This method is identical to the Office 95 and older XOR encryption algorithms that are supported by earlier versions of Word® and Excel® and still used in Office 2000 when the system locale is France. This is a fast, simple algorithm allowing for instant password recovery.

Cryptographic Provider

This is a new encryption method introduced in Microsoft® Office XP. The cryptographic service provider (CSP) is an independent software module that performs cryptography algorithms for authentication, encoding, and encryption.

There are several different cryptographic service providers developed by Microsoft®. Office XP Documents can be encrypted using any CSP that supports RC4 (a stream cipher) and SHA-1 (Secure Hash Algorithm). We have successfully tested AOPR on documents encrypted using the following CSPs:

Microsoft® Base Cryptographic Provider

Microsoft® Base DSS and Diffie-Hellman Cryptographic Provider

Microsoft® DH SChannel Cryptographic Provider

Microsoft® Enhanced Cryptographic Provider

Microsoft® Enhanced DSS and Diffie-Hellman Cryptographic Provider

Microsoft® RSA SChannel Cryptographic Provider

Microsoft® Strong Cryptographic Provider

Microsoft® Enchanced RSA and AES Cryptographic Provider (Prototype)

For documents using that encryption method, AOPR can run the same attacks as for Office 97/2000, i.e. brute-force and dictionary. If an unknown CSP has been encountered (other than one listed above), AOPR may still be able to recover the password if the CSP follows Microsoft specification.

Microsoft® PowerPoint® XP and later uses the "Cryptographic Provider" encryption method exclusively.

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