Comments on: Password Characters

By: Jon Peltier

Jon Peltier — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 19:55:00 +0000

Alex -

A hidden name is much easier to unhide than a protected VB project is to unprotect.

For Each nm In ActiveWorkbook.Names
nm.Visible = True
Next

Now you can see it in the Define Names dialog. To unprotect a VB project which has an unknown password, you have to hack into the file using a hex editor.

By: Alex J

Alex J — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 18:02:00 +0000

JWalk,
I typically keep passwords saved in a Named Range (not on a sheet). If this range is hidden, would it change your opinion?

By: Dedy

Dedy — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 10:06:00 +0000

thanks for the explanation. it’s so usefull….

By: Stac

Stac — Thu, 20 May 2004 21:10:00 +0000

Andy

Thanks for the confirmation. It is as I suspected. My company is reeling from some implications of Sarbaines-Oxley and our usage of Excel sheets.

Not sure we are going to proceed, but considering the number of Excel sites I've checked this fact on, our practices will have to change.

stac

By: Stac

Stac — Thu, 20 May 2004 21:08:00 +0000

Andy

Thanks for the confirmation. It is as I suspected. My company is reeling from some implications of Sarbanes-Oxley and our usage of Excel sheets.

Not sure how we are going to proceed, but considering the number of Excel sites I've checked this fact on, our practices will have to change.

stac

By: Andy Miller

Andy Miller — Thu, 20 May 2004 20:45:00 +0000

Stac, for 98% of users’ applications, simply protecting an Excel file with a password (and possibly hiding and protecting the VBA code) would be sufficient. The passwords can be cracked with some 3rd party software applications, but if you need true unbreakable protection, then perhaps straight Excel would not be the way to go.

By: Stac

Stac — Thu, 20 May 2004 19:49:00 +0000

What would you recommend for protection to keep people out?

Or, letting them view, but not change the information?

By: JWalk

JWalk — Thu, 20 May 2004 19:26:00 +0000

Keep in mind that in order to use something like this, the password needs to be stored somewhere in a VBA module. And we all know that the protection for VBA modules is very weak. In other words, using a password provides absolutely no guarantee that you will keep out the people you want to keep out.

By: Dick

Dick — Thu, 20 May 2004 15:05:00 +0000

Good one, Juan. I remembered that I had seen that before when I went there because he uses my initials in his function.

By: Juan Pablo

Juan Pablo — Wed, 19 May 2004 19:06:00 +0000

I like this solution:

http://www.danielklann.com/excel/hiding_text_in_a_vba_inputbox.htm

just because it shows that you *can* do it with an InputBox... of course, using the Userform may be easier to implement !