An open community 
of Macintosh users,
for Macintosh users.

FineTunedMac Dashboard widget now available! Download Here

Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Page 2 of 2 1 2
Re: Excel Password Quandary
ryck #14452 03/01/11 11:24 AM
Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 14
ryck Offline OP
OP Offline

Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 14
Stop the presses! The password has been found. Continuous perseverance on the "...could I have...?" process finally paid off.

Thanks Dianne, Artie and Pendragon for your help and ideas. On the downside I put people through something for a dumb mistake. However, on the upside I learned some good lessons....and sweated off about three pounds.

It still doesn't solve the mystery of how the password got into the Super Duper copy of the file. This weekend, when I'm doing my SD backup, I'll do some experimenting (yes, yes with a file created for the test) and will report.

I'm going back to bed, now that I can sleep again.

ryck

Last edited by ryck; 03/01/11 11:25 AM.

ryck

"What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits" The Doobie Brothers

iMac (Retina 5K, 27", 2020), 3.8 GHz 8 Core Intel Core i7, 8GB RAM, 2667 MHz DDR4
OS Ventura 13.6.3
Canon Pixma TR 8520 Printer
Epson Perfection V500 Photo Scanner c/w VueScan software
TM on 1TB LaCie USB-C
Re: Excel Password Quandary
ryck #14456 03/01/11 03:37 PM
Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 15
Online

Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 15
I'm happy to hear that your ordeal has ended happily! cool

> It still doesn't solve the mystery of how the password got into the Super Duper copy of the file.

Look in your SD log; it ought to give you a clue, if not an answer.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Excel Password Quandary
artie505 #14458 03/01/11 03:51 PM
Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 14
ryck Offline OP
OP Offline

Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 14
Originally Posted By: artie505
Look in your SD log; it ought to give you a clue, if not an answer.

It doesn't seem to. From what I can see the log only contains the actions during the Saturday Backup. Changing the file on that drive may not have involved SD, as it's just a drive identical to the main drive.

I assume the information would then be in the Console you mentioned, although I'm not too sure where to look.

At any rate, the plot thickens.....see my new thread "Is Excel A Polluter?"

ryck

Last edited by ryck; 03/01/11 03:52 PM.

ryck

"What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits" The Doobie Brothers

iMac (Retina 5K, 27", 2020), 3.8 GHz 8 Core Intel Core i7, 8GB RAM, 2667 MHz DDR4
OS Ventura 13.6.3
Canon Pixma TR 8520 Printer
Epson Perfection V500 Photo Scanner c/w VueScan software
TM on 1TB LaCie USB-C
Re: Excel Password Quandary
ryck #14462 03/01/11 04:03 PM
Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 15
Online

Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 15
> "I learned some good lessons"

One final lesson, in case it hasn't already occurred to you... Next time you password-protect something, do it to a copy, and then trash the original after you've tested the password you think you chose.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Excel Password Quandary
artie505 #14463 03/01/11 04:13 PM
Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 14
ryck Offline OP
OP Offline

Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 14
Actually, that's one of the things that make me wonder about the liberties that Microsoft seems to take. I had made a copy, using a different name, and entered the password on it. I trashed that copy. I had not touched the original.

However, when I tried to open the original, it wanted the password.

This MS behaviour is very much like the days before Macs came along. In those days the software decided what you wanted or should have.

ryck

Last edited by ryck; 03/01/11 04:16 PM.

ryck

"What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits" The Doobie Brothers

iMac (Retina 5K, 27", 2020), 3.8 GHz 8 Core Intel Core i7, 8GB RAM, 2667 MHz DDR4
OS Ventura 13.6.3
Canon Pixma TR 8520 Printer
Epson Perfection V500 Photo Scanner c/w VueScan software
TM on 1TB LaCie USB-C
Re: Excel Password Quandary
ryck #14465 03/01/11 04:46 PM
Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 15
Online

Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 15
Originally Posted By: ryck
Actually, that's one of the things that make me wonder about the liberties that Microsoft seems to take. I had made a copy, using a different name, and entered the password on it. I trashed that copy. I had not touched the original.

However, when I tried to open the original, it wanted the password.

This MS behaviour is very much like the days before Macs came along. In those days the software decided what you wanted or should have.

ryck

I'll tell you what, ryck... Your story deserves to reach a wider audience than it's reaching at FTM; its implications approach sinister are staggering.

Edit: I just realized that you've just repeated your initial post; sorry for making you type.

Last edited by artie505; 03/01/11 10:17 PM.

The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Excel Password Quandary
artie505 #14466 03/01/11 05:24 PM
Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 14
ryck Offline OP
OP Offline

Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 14
Originally Posted By: artie505
Your story deserves to reach a wider audience than it's reaching at FTM.......

I thought so too but it seems easier said than done. I tried to advise Apple but couldn't figure out how I'd get my experience to someone on the Time Machine side of the house.

ryck


ryck

"What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits" The Doobie Brothers

iMac (Retina 5K, 27", 2020), 3.8 GHz 8 Core Intel Core i7, 8GB RAM, 2667 MHz DDR4
OS Ventura 13.6.3
Canon Pixma TR 8520 Printer
Epson Perfection V500 Photo Scanner c/w VueScan software
TM on 1TB LaCie USB-C
Re: Excel Password Quandary
ryck #14480 03/01/11 10:16 PM
Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 15
Online

Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 15
Originally Posted By: ryck
Originally Posted By: artie505
Your story deserves to reach a wider audience than it's reaching at FTM.......

I thought so too but it seems easier said than done. I tried to advise Apple but couldn't figure out how I'd get my experience to someone on the Time Machine side of the house.

ryck

I wonder whether it's even within Apple's scope of control?

Seems like Microsoft is the real culprit and that it's their issue to deal with.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Excel Password Quandary
ryck #14481 03/01/11 10:34 PM
Joined: Aug 2009
Offline

Joined: Aug 2009
Originally Posted By: ryck
Originally Posted By: artie505
Sheesh! What a story.

Yeah...Arthur Conan Doyle has nothing on me.

Originally Posted By: artie505
I think I remember him getting into adjacent keys as well as permutations of the keys the thought he had pressed.

Possible except that, with the "Confirm Password" process, I'd have to make the same mistake twice


Sorry to say my issue that time was filevault. But yes, it requires the same thing twice. And I somehow managed to miskey one stroke twice.

I wrote a script of sorts that took the password, (passphrase, it's quite long!) and tried a large number of single mistake variations... any single character inserted, any character omitted. Turned out to be an adjacent keystroke.

There are companies whose entire product is an excel password breaker. Yes, companieS. So you can get your password back for a fee. Their methods are usually guaranteed. So for $29 or whatever the going rate is, you can buy a solution.

I was able to interface directly with diskutil or something from shell. With excel you may be able to interface with applescript, or you can also consider other applications such as Numbers or NeoOffice that may be able to open password-protected excel documents and that are more easily scriptable. If your password isn't too long, brute force is probably a very realistic approach.


I work for the Department of Redundancy Department
Re: Excel Password Quandary
Virtual1 #14486 03/01/11 11:13 PM
Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 14
ryck Offline OP
OP Offline

Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 14
Originally Posted By: Virtual1
There are companies whose entire product is an excel password breaker. Yes, companieS. So you can get your password back for a fee. Their methods are usually guaranteed. So for $29 or whatever the going rate is, you can buy a solution.

When I close to thinking I might not have a choice, I checked out a few of these companies. It seems they all deal with Excel c/w Windows. I couldn't find one that would deal with Mac. There was one company who looked like they could do if you submitted the file on-line.

That's when the Tacit-Russian-Mob-heebie-jeebies set in and I thought: "Maybe I'll just keep trying."

ryck

Last edited by ryck; 03/01/11 11:14 PM.

ryck

"What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits" The Doobie Brothers

iMac (Retina 5K, 27", 2020), 3.8 GHz 8 Core Intel Core i7, 8GB RAM, 2667 MHz DDR4
OS Ventura 13.6.3
Canon Pixma TR 8520 Printer
Epson Perfection V500 Photo Scanner c/w VueScan software
TM on 1TB LaCie USB-C
Re: Excel Password Quandary
ryck #14487 03/01/11 11:18 PM
Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 15
Online

Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 15
> Russian-Mob-heebie-jeebies

(???)

What's in that spreadsheet?


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Excel Password Quandary
artie505 #14488 03/01/11 11:48 PM
Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 14
ryck Offline OP
OP Offline

Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 14
Originally Posted By: artie505
What's in that spreadsheet?

Now, what kind of a spy would I be if I told? grin

Drat, now I gave away my cover and have to take the cyanide pill. I knew this wouldn't end well.

Okay, okay....over dramatic. It was just a worry about connecting with a place that might want to be popping something on my drive while they're searching the file for a password. One says they do the job in three minutes so I figured they'd do it while connected.

ryck

Last edited by ryck; 03/01/11 11:59 PM.

ryck

"What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits" The Doobie Brothers

iMac (Retina 5K, 27", 2020), 3.8 GHz 8 Core Intel Core i7, 8GB RAM, 2667 MHz DDR4
OS Ventura 13.6.3
Canon Pixma TR 8520 Printer
Epson Perfection V500 Photo Scanner c/w VueScan software
TM on 1TB LaCie USB-C
Re: Excel Password Quandary
ryck #14491 03/02/11 01:17 AM
Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 15
Online

Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 15
> Drat, now I gave away my cover and have to take the cyanide pill.

You don't take a cyanide pill; you simply grind down on the back molar on the lower right.

> One says they do the job in three minutes so I figured they'd do it while connected.

I'm with you on avoiding that; the only people to whom I give on-line access to my deuced Mac(hina) are Verizon techs.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Excel Password Quandary
ryck #14523 03/03/11 09:26 PM
Joined: Aug 2009
Offline

Joined: Aug 2009
the file itself should be the same format mac or pc. the cracking apps may be mostly windows though. just find a poor friend with windows.


I work for the Department of Redundancy Department
Page 2 of 2 1 2

Moderated by  alternaut, dianne, dkmarsh 

Link Copied to Clipboard
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.4
(Release build 20200307)
Responsive Width:

PHP: 7.4.33 Page Time: 0.028s Queries: 43 (0.019s) Memory: 0.6506 MB (Peak: 0.7777 MB) Data Comp: Zlib Server Time: 2024-03-28 20:21:07 UTC
Valid HTML 5 and Valid CSS