[excel] Is there a way to crack the password on an Excel VBA Project?

I've been asked to update some Excel 2003 macros, but the VBA projects are password protected, and it seems there's a lack of documentation... no-one knows the passwords.

Is there a way of removing or cracking the password on a VBA project?

Colin Pickard is mostly correct, but don't confuse the "password to open" protection for the entire file with the VBA password protection, which is completely different from the former and is the same for Office 2003 and 2007 (for Office 2007, rename the file to .zip and look for the vbaProject.bin inside the zip). And that technically the correct way to edit the file is to use a OLE compound document viewer like CFX to open up the correct stream. Of course, if you are just replacing bytes, the plain old binary editor may work.

BTW, if you are wondering about the exact format of these fields, they have it documented now:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd926151%28v=office.12%29.aspx

Have you tried simply opening them in OpenOffice.org?

I had a similar problem some time ago and found that Excel and Calc didn't understand each other's encryption, and so allowed direct access to just about everything.

This was a while ago, so if that wasn't just a fluke on my part it also may have been patched.

I've built upon Ð?c Thanh Nguy?n's fantastic answer to allow this method to work with 64-bit versions of Excel. I'm running Excel 2010 64-Bit on 64-Bit Windows 7.

1. Open the file(s) that contain your locked VBA Projects.

2. Create a new xlsm file and store this code in Module1

   Option Explicit
   
   Private Const PAGE_EXECUTE_READWRITE = &H40
   
   Private Declare PtrSafe Sub MoveMemory Lib "kernel32" Alias "RtlMoveMemory" _
   (Destination As LongPtr, Source As LongPtr, ByVal Length As LongPtr)
   
   Private Declare PtrSafe Function VirtualProtect Lib "kernel32" (lpAddress As LongPtr, _
   ByVal dwSize As LongPtr, ByVal flNewProtect As LongPtr, lpflOldProtect As LongPtr) As LongPtr
   
   Private Declare PtrSafe Function GetModuleHandleA Lib "kernel32" (ByVal lpModuleName As String) As LongPtr
   
   Private Declare PtrSafe Function GetProcAddress Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hModule As LongPtr, _
   ByVal lpProcName As String) As LongPtr
   
   Private Declare PtrSafe Function DialogBoxParam Lib "user32" Alias "DialogBoxParamA" (ByVal hInstance As LongPtr, _
   ByVal pTemplateName As LongPtr, ByVal hWndParent As LongPtr, _
   ByVal lpDialogFunc As LongPtr, ByVal dwInitParam As LongPtr) As Integer
   
   Dim HookBytes(0 To 5) As Byte
   Dim OriginBytes(0 To 5) As Byte
   Dim pFunc As LongPtr
   Dim Flag As Boolean
   
   Private Function GetPtr(ByVal Value As LongPtr) As LongPtr
       GetPtr = Value
   End Function
   
   Public Sub RecoverBytes()
       If Flag Then MoveMemory ByVal pFunc, ByVal VarPtr(OriginBytes(0)), 6
   End Sub
   
   Public Function Hook() As Boolean
       Dim TmpBytes(0 To 5) As Byte
       Dim p As LongPtr
       Dim OriginProtect As LongPtr
   
       Hook = False
   
       pFunc = GetProcAddress(GetModuleHandleA("user32.dll"), "DialogBoxParamA")
   
   
       If VirtualProtect(ByVal pFunc, 6, PAGE_EXECUTE_READWRITE, OriginProtect) <> 0 Then
   
           MoveMemory ByVal VarPtr(TmpBytes(0)), ByVal pFunc, 6
           If TmpBytes(0) <> &H68 Then
   
               MoveMemory ByVal VarPtr(OriginBytes(0)), ByVal pFunc, 6
   
               p = GetPtr(AddressOf MyDialogBoxParam)
   
               HookBytes(0) = &H68
               MoveMemory ByVal VarPtr(HookBytes(1)), ByVal VarPtr(p), 4
               HookBytes(5) = &HC3
   
               MoveMemory ByVal pFunc, ByVal VarPtr(HookBytes(0)), 6
               Flag = True
               Hook = True
           End If
       End If
   End Function
   
   Private Function MyDialogBoxParam(ByVal hInstance As LongPtr, _
   ByVal pTemplateName As LongPtr, ByVal hWndParent As LongPtr, _
   ByVal lpDialogFunc As LongPtr, ByVal dwInitParam As LongPtr) As Integer
   
       If pTemplateName = 4070 Then
           MyDialogBoxParam = 1
       Else
           RecoverBytes
           MyDialogBoxParam = DialogBoxParam(hInstance, pTemplateName, _
                      hWndParent, lpDialogFunc, dwInitParam)
           Hook
       End If
   End Function
   

3. Paste this code in Module2 and run it

   Sub unprotected()
       If Hook Then
           MsgBox "VBA Project is unprotected!", vbInformation, "*****"
       End If
   End Sub
   

DISCLAIMER This worked for me and I have documented it here in the hope it will help someone out. I have not fully tested it. Please be sure to save all open files before proceeding with this option.

ElcomSoft makes Advanced Office Password Breaker and Advanced Office Password Recovery products which may apply to this case, as long as the document was created in Office 2007 or prior.

My tool, VbaDiff, reads VBA directly from the file, so you can use it to recover protected VBA code from most office documents without resorting to a hex editor.

For a .xlsm or .dotm file type you need to do it a slightly different way.

1. Change the extension of the .xlsm file to .zip.
2. Open the .zip file (with WinZip or WinRar etc) and go to the xl folder.
3. Extract the vbaProject.bin file and open it in a Hex Editor (I use HxD, its completely free and lightweight.)
4. Search for DPB and replace with DPx and save the file.
5. Replace the old vbaProject.bin file with this new on in the zipped file.
6. Change the file extension back to .xlsm.
7. Open workbook skip through the warning messages.
8. Open up Visual Basic inside Excel.
9. Go to Tools > VBAProject Properties > Protection Tab.
10. Put in a new password and save the .xlsm file.
11. Close and re open and your new password will work.

The accepted answer didn't work in Excel 2019 on Windows 10. Found out the extra steps we need to take to see the locked macro. I am summarizing the steps.

1. Add a .zip to the end of the excel filename and hit enter

2. Once the file has been changed to a ZIP file, open it by double clicking on it

3. Inside you would see a folder called xl like below

4. Inside xl, you'll find a file called vbaProject.bin, copy/paste it on the desktop

5. Go to the online Hexadecimal Editor HexEd.it

6. Search for the following texts DPB=... and change them to DPx=...

7. Save the file and close HexEd.it

8. Copy/Paste the updated file from your desktop inside the ZIP file (you would need to overwrite it)

9. Remove the .zip extension from the end of the filename and add the excel extention again.

10. Open the file in excel - you may receive a couple of error notifications, just click through them.

==== EXTRA STEPS OVER THE ACCEPTED ANSWER =====

11. Open the Visual Basic window (usually ALT+F11 if I remember correctly) and open the VBAProject properties (Tools menu).
12. Click on the Protection tab and change (do not remove at this stage) the password to something short and easy to remember (we'll be removing in next step).
13. Save the workbook and then close and reopen.
14. Open again the Visual Basic window and enter the password you just put in. Redo the previous step but this time you can remove (delete) the password.
15. Save the workbook and you have now removed the password.

Extra steps are taken from following site https://confluence.jaytaala.com/display/TKB/Remove+Excel+VBA+password

Tom - I made a schoolboy error initially as I didn't watch the byte size and instead I copied and pasted from the "CMG" set up to the subsequent entry. This was two different text sizes between the two files, though, and I lost the VBA project just as Stewbob warned.

Using HxD, there is a counter tracking how much file you're selecting. Copy starting from CMG until the counter reads 8F (hex for 143) and likewise when pasting into the locked file - I ended up with twice the number of "..." at the end of the paste, which looked odd somehow and felt almost unnatural, but it worked.

I don't know if it is crucial, but I made sure I shut both the hex editor and excel down before reopening the file in Excel. I then had to go through the menus to open the VB Editor, into VBProject Properties and entered in the 'new' password to unlock the code.

I hope this helps.

your excel file's extension change to xml. And open it in notepad. password text find in xml file.

you see like below line;

Sheets("Sheet1").Unprotect Password:="blabla"

(sorry for my bad english)

Yes there is, as long as you are using a .xls format spreadsheet (the default for Excel up to 2003). For Excel 2007 onwards, the default is .xlsx, which is a fairly secure format, and this method will not work.

As Treb says, it's a simple comparison. One method is to simply swap out the password entry in the file using a hex editor (see Hex editors for Windows). Step by step example:

1. Create a new simple excel file.
2. In the VBA part, set a simple password (say - 1234).
3. Save the file and exit. Then check the file size - see Stewbob's gotcha
4. Open the file you just created with a hex editor.

5. Copy the lines starting with the following keys:

   CMG=....
   DPB=...
   GC=...
   

6. FIRST BACKUP the excel file you don't know the VBA password for, then open it with your hex editor, and paste the above copied lines from the dummy file.

7. Save the excel file and exit.
8. Now, open the excel file you need to see the VBA code in. The password for the VBA code will simply be 1234 (as in the example I'm showing here).

If you need to work with Excel 2007 or 2010, there are some other answers below which might help, particularly these: 1, 2, 3.

EDIT Feb 2015: for another method that looks very promising, look at this new answer by Ð?c Thanh Nguy?n.

In the event that your block of CMG="XXXX"\r\nDPB="XXXXX"\r\nGC="XXXXXX" in your 'known password' file is shorter than the existing block in the 'unknown password' file, pad your hex strings with trailing zeros to reach the correct length.

e.g.

CMG="xxxxxx"\r\nDPB="xxxxxxxx"\r\nGC="xxxxxxxxxx"

in the unknown password file, should be set to

CMG="XXXX00"\r\nDPB="XXXXX000"\r\nGC="XXXXXX0000" to preserve file length.

I have also had this working with .XLA (97/2003 format) files in office 2007.

Colin Pickard has an excellent answer, but there is one 'watch out' with this. There are instances (I haven't figured out the cause yet) where the total length of the "CMG=........GC=...." entry in the file is different from one excel file to the next. In some cases, this entry will be 137 bytes, and in others it will be 143 bytes. The 137 byte length is the odd one, and if this happens when you create your file with the '1234' password, just create another file, and it should jump to the 143 byte length.

If you try to paste the wrong number of bytes into the file, you will lose your VBA project when you try to open the file with Excel.

EDIT

This is not valid for Excel 2007/2010 files. The standard .xlsx file format is actually a .zip file containing numerous sub-folders with the formatting, layout, content, etc, stored as xml data. For an unprotected Excel 2007 file, you can just change the .xlsx extension to .zip, then open the zip file and look through all the xml data. It's very straightforward.

However, when you password protect an Excel 2007 file, the entire .zip (.xlsx) file is actually encrypted using RSA encryption. It is no longer possible to change the extension to .zip and browse the file contents.

The protection is a simple text comparison in Excel. Load Excel in your favourite debugger (Ollydbg being my tool of choice), find the code that does the comparison and fix it to always return true, this should let you access the macros.

VBA Project Passwords on Access, Excel, Powerpoint, or Word documents (2007, 2010, 2013 or 2016 versions with extensions .ACCDB .XLSM .XLTM .DOCM .DOTM .POTM .PPSM) can be easily removed.

It's simply a matter of changing the filename extension to .ZIP, unzipping the file, and using any basic Hex Editor (like XVI32) to "break" the existing password, which "confuses" Office so it prompts for a new password next time the file is opened.

A summary of the steps:

• rename the file so it has a .ZIP extension.
• open the ZIP and go to the XL folder.
• extract vbaProject.bin and open it with a Hex Editor
• "Search & Replace" to "replace all" changing DPB to DPX.
• Save changes, place the .bin file back into the zip, return it to it's normal extension and open the file like normal.
• ALT+F11 to enter the VB Editor and right-click in the Project Explorer to choose VBA Project Properties.
• On the Protection tab, Set a new password.
• Click OK, Close the file, Re-open it, hit ALT+F11.
• Enter the new password that you set.

At this point you can remove the password completely if you choose to.

Complete instructions with a step-by-step video I made "way back when" are on YouTube here.

It's kind of shocking that this workaround has been out there for years, and Microsoft hasn't fixed the issue.

The moral of the story?

Microsoft Office VBA Project passwords are not to be relied upon for security of any sensitive information. If security is important, use third-party encryption software.

If you work in Java you may try VBAMacroExtractor. After extracting VBA scripts from .xlsm I've found there password in plaintext.

There is another (somewhat easier) solution, without the size problems. I used this approach today (on a 2003 XLS file, using Excel 2007) and was successful.

1. Backup the xls file
2. Open the file in a HEX editor and locate the DPB=... part
3. Change the DPB=... string to DPx=...
4. Open the xls file in Excel
5. Open the VBA editor (ALT + F11)
6. the magic: Excel discovers an invalid key (DPx) and asks whether you want to continue loading the project (basically ignoring the protection)
7. You will be able to overwrite the password, so change it to something you can remember
8. Save the xls file*
9. Close and reopen the document and work your VBA magic!

*NOTE: Be sure that you have changed the password to a new value, otherwise the next time you open the spreadsheet Excel will report errors (Unexpected Error), then when you access the list of VBA modules you will now see the names of the source modules but receive another error when trying to open forms/code/etc. To remedy this, go back to the VBA Project Properties and set the password to a new value. Save and re-open the Excel document and you should be good to go!

For Excel 2007 onward you need to change your file extension to .zip In the archive there is a subfolder xl, in there you will find vbaProject.bin. Follow the step above with vbaProject.bin then save it back in the archive. Modify back your extension and voilà! (meaning follow steps above)

With my turn, this is built upon kaybee99's excellent answer which is built upon Ð?c Thanh Nguy?n's fantastic answer to allow this method to work with both x86 and amd64 versions of Office.

An overview of what is changed, we avoid push/ret which is limited to 32bit addresses and replace it with mov/jmp reg.

Tested and works on

Word/Excel 2016 - 32 bit version.
Word/Excel 2016 - 64 bit version.

how it works

1. Open the file(s) that contain your locked VBA Projects.

2. Create a new file with the same type as the above and store this code in Module1

   Option Explicit
   
   Private Const PAGE_EXECUTE_READWRITE = &H40
   
   Private Declare PtrSafe Sub MoveMemory Lib "kernel32" Alias "RtlMoveMemory" _
   (Destination As LongPtr, Source As LongPtr, ByVal Length As LongPtr)
   
   Private Declare PtrSafe Function VirtualProtect Lib "kernel32" (lpAddress As LongPtr, _
   ByVal dwSize As LongPtr, ByVal flNewProtect As LongPtr, lpflOldProtect As LongPtr) As LongPtr
   
   Private Declare PtrSafe Function GetModuleHandleA Lib "kernel32" (ByVal lpModuleName As String) As LongPtr
   
   Private Declare PtrSafe Function GetProcAddress Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hModule As LongPtr, _
   ByVal lpProcName As String) As LongPtr
   
   Private Declare PtrSafe Function DialogBoxParam Lib "user32" Alias "DialogBoxParamA" (ByVal hInstance As LongPtr, _
   ByVal pTemplateName As LongPtr, ByVal hWndParent As LongPtr, _
   ByVal lpDialogFunc As LongPtr, ByVal dwInitParam As LongPtr) As Integer
   
   Dim HookBytes(0 To 11) As Byte
   Dim OriginBytes(0 To 11) As Byte
   Dim pFunc As LongPtr
   Dim Flag As Boolean
   
   Private Function GetPtr(ByVal Value As LongPtr) As LongPtr
       GetPtr = Value
   End Function
   
   Public Sub RecoverBytes()
       If Flag Then MoveMemory ByVal pFunc, ByVal VarPtr(OriginBytes(0)), 12
   End Sub
   
   Public Function Hook() As Boolean
       Dim TmpBytes(0 To 11) As Byte
       Dim p As LongPtr, osi As Byte
       Dim OriginProtect As LongPtr
   
       Hook = False
   
       #If Win64 Then
           osi = 1
       #Else
           osi = 0
       #End If
   
       pFunc = GetProcAddress(GetModuleHandleA("user32.dll"), "DialogBoxParamA")
   
       If VirtualProtect(ByVal pFunc, 12, PAGE_EXECUTE_READWRITE, OriginProtect) <> 0 Then
   
           MoveMemory ByVal VarPtr(TmpBytes(0)), ByVal pFunc, osi+1
           If TmpBytes(osi) <> &HB8 Then
   
               MoveMemory ByVal VarPtr(OriginBytes(0)), ByVal pFunc, 12
   
               p = GetPtr(AddressOf MyDialogBoxParam)
   
               If osi Then HookBytes(0) = &H48
               HookBytes(osi) = &HB8
               osi = osi + 1
               MoveMemory ByVal VarPtr(HookBytes(osi)), ByVal VarPtr(p), 4 * osi
               HookBytes(osi + 4 * osi) = &HFF
               HookBytes(osi + 4 * osi + 1) = &HE0
   
               MoveMemory ByVal pFunc, ByVal VarPtr(HookBytes(0)), 12
               Flag = True
               Hook = True
           End If
       End If
   End Function
   
   Private Function MyDialogBoxParam(ByVal hInstance As LongPtr, _
   ByVal pTemplateName As LongPtr, ByVal hWndParent As LongPtr, _
   ByVal lpDialogFunc As LongPtr, ByVal dwInitParam As LongPtr) As Integer
   
       If pTemplateName = 4070 Then
           MyDialogBoxParam = 1
       Else
           RecoverBytes
           MyDialogBoxParam = DialogBoxParam(hInstance, pTemplateName, _
                      hWndParent, lpDialogFunc, dwInitParam)
           Hook
       End If
   End Function
   

3. Paste this code in Module2 and run it

   Sub unprotected()
       If Hook Then
           MsgBox "VBA Project is unprotected!", vbInformation, "*****"
       End If
   End Sub
   

It's worth pointing out that if you have an Excel 2007 (xlsm) file, then you can simply save it as an Excel 2003 (xls) file and use the methods outlined in other answers.

For Excel 2016 64-bit on a Windows 10 machine, I have used a hex editor to be able to change the password of a protected xla (have not tested this for any other extensions). Tip: create a backup before you do this.

The steps I took:

1. Open the vba in the hex editor (for example XVI)
2. Search on this DPB
3. Change DPB to something else, like DPX
4. Save it!
5. Reopen the .xla, an error message will appear, just continue.
6. You can now change the password of the .xla by opening the properties and go to the password tab.

I hope this helped some of you!

If the file is a valid zip file (the first few bytes are 50 4B -- used in formats like .xlsm), then unzip the file and look for the subfile xl/vbaProject.bin. This is a CFB file just like the .xls files. Follow the instructions for the XLS format (applied to the subfile) and then just zip the contents.

For the XLS format, you can follow some of the other methods in this post. I personally prefer searching for the DPB= block and replacing the text

CMG="..."
DPB="..."
GC="..."

with blank spaces. This obviates CFB container size issues.

I tried some of solutions above and none of them works for me (excel 2007 xlsm file). Then i found another solution that even retrieve password, not just crack it.

Insert this code into module, run it and give it some time. It will recover your password by brute force.

Sub PasswordBreaker()

'Breaks worksheet password protection.

Dim i As Integer, j As Integer, k As Integer
Dim l As Integer, m As Integer, n As Integer
Dim i1 As Integer, i2 As Integer, i3 As Integer
Dim i4 As Integer, i5 As Integer, i6 As Integer
On Error Resume Next
For i = 65 To 66: For j = 65 To 66: For k = 65 To 66
For l = 65 To 66: For m = 65 To 66: For i1 = 65 To 66
For i2 = 65 To 66: For i3 = 65 To 66: For i4 = 65 To 66
For i5 = 65 To 66: For i6 = 65 To 66: For n = 32 To 126
ActiveSheet.Unprotect Chr(i) & Chr(j) & Chr(k) & _
Chr(l) & Chr(m) & Chr(i1) & Chr(i2) & Chr(i3) & _
Chr(i4) & Chr(i5) & Chr(i6) & Chr(n)
If ActiveSheet.ProtectContents = False Then
MsgBox "One usable password is " & Chr(i) & Chr(j) & _
Chr(k) & Chr(l) & Chr(m) & Chr(i1) & Chr(i2) & _
Chr(i3) & Chr(i4) & Chr(i5) & Chr(i6) & Chr(n)
Exit Sub
End If
Next: Next: Next: Next: Next: Next
Next: Next: Next: Next: Next: Next
End Sub