Client forgot password protected .xlsx file.

[thecomputerguy]

Simple issue here ... client forgot her password to get into her Excel spreadsheet ... does anyone know of a away to crack this? It's not a 'sheet' that's password protected it's the whole file. As soon as you open the file it prompts for a password whether in Excel or Chrome.

Edit: Document created in Excel 2016

 

[HCHTech]

There are a handful of paid softwares out there for this, but no free method that I'm aware of. Well, scratch that...literally the top Google result for me has some VBA code that you can run. I would make a copy of that file and work on the copy for sure - don't want to muck up the original if you can avoid it.

 

[MichaelBits]

Not so simple...
Most likely not a way to unlock that file.

Setting up a password for a document encrypts it. No way to recover I'm aware of.
You have to keep that password or you lose that file!

The only possibility is if it had been setup with an escrow key through a certificate store, then you can use DocRecrypt tool to reset it. However, this is generally only done in larger IT departments or organizations. Highly unlikely a single user would even have access to those.

 

[Moltuae]

I've successfully used Passware Kit on numerous occasions. On earlier Excel file formats, Passware kit will usually crack the password instantly but, on later Excel file formats, it will usually revert to a brute force attack, which can take a long time. However, if she can remember any part of her password, or provide you with a list of words that the password is likely to contain, you can modify the brute force attack parameters which could substantially reduce the time required to crack the password.

There's a free demo available, which allows recovery of the first 3 characters of the password only. If that's enough to jog her memory it might not be necessary to purchase a licence.

https://www.passware.com/kit-standard/freedemo/

 

[Diggs]

Since Office 2007 there has been no way to break the 128-bit encryption. Before that there were quite a few tools to use. Since Office 2016 uses the newer 256-bit his chances of recovery are slim and none.

 

[fencepost]

I haven't used their products for years, but you might try Advanced Office Password Recovery from Elcomsoft. I'm pretty sure they've been around and working in this market for >20 years.

 

[LedHed]

People generally use the same passwords over and over. I would run webbrowserpassview to see what passwords she has used in her browser and try those on the Excel file. I agree with HCHTech, make a copy and work with it.