Cracking Passwords on Protected MS Excel Tabs!

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Recently I came across an old MS Excel Worksheet that I had created a very long time ago. While attempting to navigate and update the content in one the tabs, I noticed that the tab is password protected. It appears that I had password protected that tab due to the sensitivity of the data placed there. BTW, in case you don’t know how to password protect a tab on MS Excel, see the illustration below.

Right click on any given tab

Enter your password in the space provided.

The sad thing was that I didn’t remember the password that I had inputted for that tab L
After some research I found out a way for cracking the password on tabs that have been protected! I will illustrate this to you in three simple steps: 

STEP 1] Launch the Visual Basics Editor. Do this by hitting “ALT+F11” in the Excel Workbook and then going to “Insert” in the top menu page and selecting “Module”.     

STEP 2] Insert the code within the notepad document below in the code section.

​Sub PasswordBreaker()
 
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)
ActiveWorkbook.Sheets(1).Select
Range("a1").FormulaR1C1 = 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

STEP 3] Close the Visual Basics Editor and go to the worksheet tab that you want to unprotect. From the ribbon go to View > Macros and run the “PasswordBreaker” macro that was created and saved in step2. Click "Run".

Done! No more protection from now on

Source for VB code: 
http://www.theofficeexperts.com/VBASamples/Excel02.htm

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