I spotted this 2009 article a few weeks ago, and have now had time to test it — it works! Now, why would you want to unlock a password-protected Word document? Surely the author/company has locked it for a reason? Yes, in many cases, that’s correct and you shouldn’t try to circumvent the password protection — instead, ask the author/company for the password if you need to access elements of the document (e.g. Protected form fields, formatting tools etc.). However, if the author has left the company, or if they wrote the document many years ago and have forgotten the password (it happens!), then you may need to break the password protection to access the document’s contents and functions. You can follow the steps in the link above, or, in case the content at that link gets removed at any stage, follow my modified and more detailed steps below, which are based on that article:.
The second method of applying an open password to a Word document involves the “Save As” dialog box. Again, make sure the document to which you want to add an open password is open and click the “File” tab. On the backstage screen, click “Save As” in the list of items on the left.
Open the password-protected document in Word, if you can. NOTE: Many password-protected documents can be opened but you can’t do anything with them, like change any wording that isn’t inside a form field, modify styles, apply different formatting etc. For those documents, the password protection applies to elements of the document, not the whole document, and you can open it but not do much with it. If the entire document has been protected, then you can’t open it, and thus can’t do any of the steps below. Go to File Save As, then select Word XML Document (.xml) from the Save as type drop-down list. Click Save. Close Word.
Right-click on the saved XML file (it should be in the same folder as your original document), then select Open with and choose a text editing program to open the file with (e.g. WordPad, NotePad, or other text editing program — do NOT choose Microsoft Word). Press Ctrl+F to open the Find dialog box. In the Find what field, type enforcement.
You’ll find one instance, either w:enforcement=”1″ or w:enforcement=”on”. Replace the “1” with a zero “0” (or replace “on” with “off”) to disable enforcement. This step unlocks the document. Save the XML document within your text editor, then close the text editing software. Right-click on the saved XML file, then select Open with and choose Microsoft Word.
As soon as you’ve opened it, go to File Save As, then select Word Document (.docx) from the Save as type drop-down list. Change the file name if you want to preserve the original password-protected document an make this a new document, or use the same file name to replace the original document. Click Save. You should now be able to edit the document. Link last checked December 2017.
A History of PDF Password removal It is possible to use passwords to protect PDF files from being opened, printed or altered. A PDF file that has been secured with the help of a strong and robust password has supposedly enough protection in order to avoid duplication or distribution by unauthorised users (assuming of course that the recipient who has been given the password in order to open it does not share this with others). The creator of a PDF file can use password protection to limit user access to the file (document contents are encrypted), prevent printing, copying of text from the file, and editing the content in the document. However, the question arises as to what needs to be done if the original password created by the user has been forgotten? There are a number of PDF password remover tools that are easily available on the Internet in order to access lost passwords. Here, it is important to mention that PDF password protection remover tools were initially invented to be used only under appropriate circumstances – that is only if the original creator of the PDF file has lost the password and if the user has the legal right to view and modify the PDF but does not have the password.
However as with all applications their use was quickly misused for gaining access to files by unauthorized users and/or removing PDF restrictions. One might ask how PDF password remover tools came to be so effective? This article provides a clue – – “Adobe’s PDF protection scheme is a classic example of security through obscurity. They encrypt the content of a PDF file and hope that no one figures out how to decrypt it.” Not only are PDF password remover programs highly effective in easily decrypting PDF files, but many of them are available for free. They use various methods to remove PDF passwords such as dictionary attacks – basically they have a massive dictionary of popular and common passwords, and they will try all of them to see if any work.
The process takes maybe a few minutes to run through thousands of these. Typical passwords NOT to use include: 123456, 123456789, password. Admin, 12345678, qwerty, 1234567, 111111, photoshop, 123123, 000000, abc123, 1234, adobe1, macromedia, azerty, iloveyou, aaaaaa, 654321, fred. If you want to share PDF files securely then using obvious passwords is not going to provide much protection.
In the Adobe PDF standard there are two passwords you can apply to encrypt a PDF file:. The Document Open password – required to open the PDF. The Permissions password – required to set, change, or remove PDF restrictions The stronger the document open password the longer it will take to crack or remove with PDF password remover tools. The permissions password however can be broken trivially no matter how strong it is due to inherant weaknesses (or flaws) in the design of the Acrobat Standard Security handler. See In fact, when it comes to removing PDF permissions you don’t even need to use a PDF password remover program – there are other simpler methods – see Removing PDF Restrictions below – to trivially remove the permissions password and do what you like with the document You therefore must add a Document Open password to the PDF or the permissions password can be simply removed. However the dilemma here is that people you are sending protected PDF documents to need to have the Document Open password in order to read them.
So the only protection provided is if someone (i.e. An unauthorized user) gets hold of a protected PDF, not knowing what the password is. But even here PDF password remover companies provide PDF cracking tools that will remove the Document Open Password unless it is very strong. If you are looking at PDF password remover tools for your legitimate use (to unlock PDF files that you have forgotten the password for) then you will need to exercise a great deal of caution with freely available password remover tools. Most password remover tools that are free require the user to download irrelevant software onto their computer. Some PDF password remover tools, for example a well known password remover software known as “PDF Unlocker”, gets the user to install unnecessary plug-ins and browser toolbars in order to use the tool.
It is important to be highly cautious while downloading such tools, as often these additional extensions and plug-ins are nothing but completely unnecessary bloatware that slow down computer performance. Current cracking tools use several techinques to remove a PDF User password and unlock PDF files:. Common password lists – this tries the most poplular words people often use as password – e.g.
Password, master, 123456, etc. If the common passwords fail they switch to using words from dictionaries. Dictionary attacks – this tries common words found in a dictionary, often in several different languages. Single dictionary words can be cracked in minutes.
Brute force – they start with a password that is a blank field, add 1 bit and try that. If it fails they add another bit and try again until they find it, which is guaranteed. So the shorter the password the quicker the cracker gets there. Rainbow table – a list of pre-computed hashes (the numerical value of an encrypted password) of all possible password combinations for any given hashing algorithm. How to remove password from PDF files To remove PDF password protection from a PDF file, look into some of these safe PDF password remover tools: PDF Password remover tools.
– removes PDF user and owner passwords. PDF permissions are ‘protected’ with the use of an Permissions password. However the Permissions password can be easily removed in seconds without using PDF password remover tools:. they can be bypassed easily using a Mac – see. third party PDF readers do not have to honor these controls so they may not necessarily be applied anyway. using Google Drive – see The reason PDF restrictions password removal is so simple is that Adobe relies on the honor system for PDF password security (i.e.
Please obey the restrictions placed on this document). So it would be fair to say that applying PDF Permissions passwords are a waste of time because all of the above methods effectively renders them useless. A well-known technology website offered technical experts the opportunity to crack a 10,000+ entry-encrypted password document and asked them to breach into the security of the file.
The winner of the project was able to get over 95 percent of the entries while the other participants were able to crack 75 percent, in just a matter of few hours. How the ‘crackers’ did it was through the unfortunate and irresponsible use of non-randomized passwords by the account holders. Some of the commonly used passwords in the encrypted file included “123456,” “1234567,” “password,” hello123,” “hello1,” “admin” etc. Is an extremely sensitive concern given the value and importance of the contents contained within them. Having said that, it is also important for users to be extremely cautious when sharing PDF files and documents amongst one another, as this may cause documents to be inadvertently leaked to unauthorized parties. There have been cases where even after much caution; documents have fallen into unintended hands. This is why it is extremely significant to integrate additional safety measures to documents in addition to strong PDF passwords.
Unlocking password protected PDFs is more likely if the password protecting them is simple and weak – PDF documents are only as safe as the passwords that are safeguarding them. To prevent the, make use of passwords that are more than seven characters long and that also include at least one number and one special character. Experts widely agree that simple words such as a straight dictionary word should not be used. Also, refrain from using short length passwords. To prevent users removing PDF protection, employ a secure solution that does not use passwords for protection or exposes keys to users or any third party interfaces or applications.
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Locklizard PDF protection software for example protects PDF documents without the use of passwords so there are none to forget or pass on to others. We use AES 256 bit encryption, real-time licensing, and public key technology, and keys are not exposed to any interface for attack so unauthorized users cannot unlock PDF files.
We do not rely on Adobe for security (the Adobe Security Handler is seriously flawed) or insecure plugins to any third party applications – see our for the methods we use to protect PDFs from unauthorized use or misuse. PDF files are locked to individual devices so they cannot be shared and additionally can be locked to IP ranges and country locations. Protect and control your PDF documents securely no matter where they reside.