Thanks for your awesome How-to! :)

Thank you! Do you also happen to know where I can identigy the algorithm that Microsoft Word 2010 uses to encrypt it’s documents???

Thanks again!

Hi Stephanie.

When encryption an Office 2010 document, the default encryption used is AES 128-bit key length encryption.

Here’s the details from Microsoft: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc179125.aspx

For instructions on encrypting office 2010 read this — https://www.groovypost.com/howto/geek-stuff/password-protect-encrypt-microsoft-office-2010-documents/

Hope this helps!

I’ve actually tried asking the liveChat people on Microsoft and they didn’t know–they directed me to a phone number. I haven’t called yet because I wanted to exhaust all my internet options before even remotely trying to call.

Basically, how do I find the key strength and algorithm that Microsoft Word 2010 uses for my encrypted document. I was going to try the steps above, but there is no “tools” on my microsoft 2010.

So what should I do or where should I look???

According to MSDN, the (Prototype) in the name shows up in Windows XP, but not newer versions.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa386979(VS.85).aspx

Thanks. That’s just what I needed to know.

If I remember correctly (going way back here)…. the MS Crypto provider was backwards compatible with even earlier versions of Office and it was easily broken using simple tools like Passware. Best option is the AES/RSA with a long pass phrase.

RC4, Microsoft Enchanced RSA and AES Cryptographic Provider (Prototype)

Do you know why, (it’s a genuine copy of Office 2003) and if it’s still okay to use?

Many thanks!

Nope. Not with Office 2003, 2007 or 2010. There really is no way to password protect a folder using Office. You can however talk to your IT administrator and setup NTFS permissions to give everyone only read access (and you read/write) so they cannot delete anything in the folder on the share drive. This is actually VERY easy to do.

Its on a shared network drive so i dont want anyone deleting things inside there.

HELP!

office 2003

A password for a folder? What exactly are you trying to do?

tab> make sure that al desired boxes are selected.
Select save tab>choose and mark box>ask about properties
accept or Apply options and close.
Save new document different name. When saving it should ask if you want to save properties>

choose not save. Maybe it asks if you want to modify properties> choose yes> select box archive

amongst read only, hidden or archive.
If this does not work.

B)There are many 3rd party utilities which claim to recover forgotten word password:
The program that I recommend is the Word Password Recovery 5.0 It recovers/removes the “Password

to Open” and “Password to Edit” for you to view and edit the document freely.

http://www.recoverlostpassword.com/products/wor…

BTW – Please remember, if you are using the default encryption the password can be cracked very easily using several off-the-shelf products. You really should consider using the encryption algorithm I recommend in the Article.

Thanks again!

In regards to the strength of encryption for Word and Excel 2003 and 2007, if you follow my instructions above regarding the encryption “type” and you use a strong password, the encryption is very strong. Please remember, the key is the password. If you use a dictionary word like happy or december or automobile… the password will be broken in a matter of minutes. If you use a password like: ! l@v3 @ppl3S (special case, spaces between words, numbers, letters) it will be VERY difficult for a NON-NSA type person to crack the encryption and open your document. Trust me, I’ve tried on a 16 way server and after 2 weeks, I aborted the brute force attack. The key is [strong]Encryption Type (RSA/AES), Password Complexity and Password Length.[/strong]

Glad if I could help.

Thanks again!