Even twenty years ago, 40-bit encryption was considered weak enough to be cracked in reasonable time. A weak 40-bit encryption key and a single iteration of MD5 hashing are used to protect information. Technically speaking, the “compatible” formats are using the RC4 cipher for encryption and MD5 for hashing. The native US versions of Microsoft Office could be configured to use stronger encryption, yet the setting was rarely enabled because of valid compatibility concerns – the same concerns that are driving many organizations today to keep using the “compatible” DOC/XLS formats for their document workflow.

That encryption scheme was carried over to Microsoft Office 2000 unchanged, even though by the time the export restrictions ceased to exist. Microsoft Office 97 was once released with deliberately weak encryption due to US export restrictions. You can read more about it in our previous article Microsoft Office 40-bit Encryption and Thunder Tables in Advanced Office Password Recovery. Microsoft Office: legacy encryption in “compatible” formatsįor compatibility reasons, Microsoft Office apps are still using legacy encryption when a document is saved as a. Why does it work that way, what is the difference in encryption between the “compatible” and modern formats, and how exactly can you remove protection from DOC and XLS files? Read along to find out. Newer versions of Microsoft Office: documents saved as “Word 97-2003.Microsoft Office XP and 2003: 40-bit encryption is used by default adds optional CSP support.Microsoft Office : these versions of Microsoft Office use 40-bit encryption exclusively.

Organizations are still using the “compatible” Office 97/2000 formats for their document workflow.Īdvanced Office Password Recovery can quickly remove protection and decrypt documents saved in the following formats: Advanced Office Password Recovery enables experts quickly breaking the encryption of password-protected DOC and XLS files, which are Microsoft Word and Excel documents saved by modern versions of the app in the “compatibility” format. Accessing the content of password-protected and encrypted documents saved as DOC/XLS files (as opposed to the newer DOCX/XLSX files) is often possible without time-consuming attacks regardless of the length of the password.

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