Forgot your Excel password? Here is a super practical method for cracking Excel passwords.

In our daily lives and work, we often encounter situations where we forget the password for Excel files, which can be really frustrating! Don't worry, today I'm going to share some super practical Excel password cracking methods to help you easily recover those forgotten passwords.

I. Understanding the Basic Principles of Excel Passwords

The password for an Excel file is a security mechanism used to protect the contents of the file from unauthorized access. A password is usually a string of letters, numbers, and special characters. When you open an Excel file with a password, Excel will ask you to enter the correct password to open the file. If the password is entered incorrectly, Excel will refuse to open the file.

II. Common Excel Password Cracking Methods

1. Brute-force cracking method
   • This is a very basic password cracking method, which involves trying all possible password combinations to find the correct password.
   • However, due to the large number of combinations of passwords, this method often takes a long time to find the correct password.
   • To improve the efficiency of brute-force cracking, you can use some password cracking tools, such as John the Ripper and Hashcat. These tools can use the computer's powerful computing capabilities to quickly try a large number of password combinations.
2. Dictionary attack method
   • A dictionary attack is a method that uses a known password dictionary to attempt to crack a password.
   • A password dictionary is a file containing a large number of common passwords, such as "123456", "password", "admin", etc.
   • You can find the correct password by trying to enter each password in the password dictionary into the Excel file one by one to see if the file can be opened.
   • To improve the effectiveness of dictionary attacks, you can use some custom password dictionaries, such as those containing your username, phone number, birthday, and other information.
3. Social Engineering Methods
   • Social engineering is a method of exploiting people's psychological weaknesses to obtain passwords.
   • For example, you can trick someone into telling you your password; Or you can guess the other person's password by observing their behavior.
   • This approach, while unethical, can be very effective in some situations.
4. Use Excel's built-in password recovery feature
   • Excel comes with built-in password recovery features, such as the Forgot Password feature and the Macro Virus Protection feature.
   • The "Forgot Password" feature can help you retrieve your forgotten Excel file password. You just need to follow the prompts and Excel will automatically try to crack the password.
   • The Macro Virus Protection feature prevents macro viruses from infecting Excel files and automatically restores the files when they are infected.

III. Using the password cracking tool Hashcat to crack Excel passwords online

Hashcat is a very powerful password cracking tool that can be used to crack various types of passwords, including Excel file passwords. Hashcat Online (https://www.hashcatonline.com/）提供了免上传文件支持哈希解密的功能，无需人工操作且无数据泄露风险，价格低廉，非常适合个人和企业使用。

Here are the steps to crack Excel passwords online using Hashcat:

1. Open the Hashcat online site (https://www.hashcatonline.com/）。
2. Select "Excel" as the file type to crack.
3. Click the "Select File" button to select the Excel file you want to crack.
4. Select "Excel 97-2003" or "Excel 2007+" from the "Hash Types" drop-down menu, and select the appropriate hash type based on your Excel file version.
5. Paste the hash value of the Excel file you want to crack in the Hash Value text box. You can obtain the hash value of an Excel file using other tools, such as the "certutil" command built into Windows or an online hash value generator.
6. Select the password dictionary file you want to use in the Dictionary File text box. You can use the default password dictionary file, or you can upload your own password dictionary file.
7. Click the "Start Cracking" button, and Hashcat will begin trying to crack the password for the Excel file.
8. The cracking process may take some time, depending on the complexity of the password and the performance of your computer. You can view the cracking progress and cracking results during the cracking process.
9. When the crack is complete, Hashcat displays the cracked password. You can copy the password to the clipboard and then use it to open the Excel file.

IV. Precautions

1. Using a password cracking tool to crack a password is illegal unless you have legal authorization or reason to do so. Before using a password cracking tool, make sure you have obtained legal authorization or reasons.
2. Password cracking tools can place a certain burden on computer systems, especially when cracking complex passwords. Before using a password cracking tool, make sure your computer system has sufficient performance and resources.
3. Password cracking tools may expose your password or other sensitive information. Before using password cracking tools, make sure you understand how to use them and the risks, and take appropriate security measures.

In short, forgetting Excel file passwords is a very common thing, but we don't need to worry too much. By using the methods described above, we can easily retrieve our forgotten Excel file passwords. At the same time, we should also pay attention to protecting our passwords and avoid disclosing them to others. If you have any questions about Excel password recovery or need assistance, please feel free to contact me. I will do my best to help you.