open password protected document

[TWillard]

I am trying to open a Word97 document that has been password protected. I know there are alot of commercial sites out there who will crack the password for a fee. However, I am looking for advice on how to create a software program that will acomplish this task. I probably will want to create one that will use the standard brute force to open the documen.

1) Does any one know much about the MS Word Password Feature?
2) Is there a way to find the length of the password w/o running the application through all of the possibilities?
3)In a brute force mode, is there a way to see the first characters of the password as the program is running? Or is the brute force method an all or nothing shot?
4) What technologies would you use to write the program?


If you have any good advice please let me know.

Thanks,
Tim

 

[AidanEnos]

It depends on how badly youo want the document. If you take a file called Homer.doc and change it to homer.doc.txt and open in Notepad, wrap text. You will have a very messy version of the text at the bottom of the page, the top is tons of jibberish that is all MSWord header... and there are NPC all throughout it... but you CAN recover the data if you don't mind cleaning it up )

AidanEnos

 

[Madcow67]

You can maintain the integrity of the text if you import the file into a non-Microsoft page layout program such as PageMaker or FrameMaker. I don't know if you could open it in WordPerfect or AmiPro, but it's worth a try. *****************************************
Red, White & Blue: Colors That Never Run!

Kristina McCook
Senior Logistician
CACI - Automated Sciences Group, Inc.
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