Advanced Excel 97 Password Recovery 1.01
========================================
(c) 1998 Andy Malyshev, Elcom Ltd.


Contents
--------

1. Overview
2. About Excel 97 passwords
3. Working with AE97PR
  3.1. Working with projects
    3.1.1. Creating the project
    3.1.2. Selecting the Excel document file
    3.1.3. Saving your project
  3.2. Project options
    3.2.1. Selecting the type of attack
    3.2.2. Selecting the password length
    3.2.3. Selecting a brute-force range
    3.2.4. Selecting the dictionary file
    3.2.5. Selecting priority
    3.2.6. Auto Save Project
  3.3. Recovery process
  3.4. Status window
4. System requirements
5. Future enhancements
6. Contact information
Ombudsman statement


1. Overview
-----------

Advanced Excel 97 Password Recovery (or simply AE97PR) has been
designed for recovering the lost passwords for Microsoft Excel 97
documents. In addition, it can be used for analysing the
security of your Excel documents.

The program is compatible with all international (non-english)
versions of MS Excel.


2. About Excel 97 passwords
--------------------------

When you assign the password to your Excel 97 document, Microsoft
Excel encrypts the document using relatively complicated
algorythm (wityhout storing the password itself inside the
file), so it is impossible to retrieve it at all. However, we
can recover the lost password using the "brute-force" and
dictionary attacks. For the "brute-force" attack, you have to
set up the password length (it is limited to 15 by Excel) and
password range (which, by the way, can include a national
symbols).


3. Working with AE97PR
----------------------

3.1. Working with projects

3.1.1. Creating the project

First, you have to create a project. Project file contains all
information about the source file, selected options and
character set. It is based on the Excel document file, so you
have to select the file first.

When the program starts, it creates a new project automatically.
Also, you can create a project by pressing the "Create new
project" button or selecting the "Project -> New" menu item.

3.1.2. Selecting the Excel document file

Next step is a source file selection. Press the "Load a Excel
document into project" button and select an appropriate file; if
the specified file is not a Excel 97 document, or it's corrupted
or used by another applications - appropriate error message will
be displayed.

3.1.3. Saving your project

When the file is loaded, you can save your project -- all the
changes you've made will be reflected in the project file; the
name for the project is selected automatically based on the name
of the file; if you want to give an alternative name - use
"Project -> Save as..." menu item. If you don't want to change
the name, just use the "Save project" button or "Project ->
Save" menu item.

3.2. Project options

3.2.1. Selecting the type of attack

AE97PR supports two attack types: brute-force and
dictionary-based. A brute-force attack will try all possible
passwords in specified range; a dictionary attack verifies the
words stored in specified dictionary file. A dictionary attack
is faster, and so we recommend to run it first; only if it
fails, perform a brute-force attack.

(*) Please note, that dictionary attack is not available in
unregistered version of AE97PR.

3.2.2. Selecting the password length

As noted above, the password length can be from 1 to 15
characters; you can set minimun and maximum length in AE97PR.

(*) If you are using an unregistered version of AE97PR, you can
not set the password length greater than 5 characters.

3.2.3. Selecting a brute-force range

In Excel 97 documents, passwords may contain the following 
characters: latin letters (both small and capital), digits,
special symbols (like @, #, $ etc) and national languages
symbols. You can select these ranges separately, or define your
own password range. To define your own range, check the box
"Custom", press the "Define custom charset" button, and enter
all characters you think the password may consist of. You can
load, save and insert your defined character sets, using
appropriate buttons in "Define custom charset" dialog.

The "Start from password" field is used for resuming the
interrupted recovery process. Don't change this field, if you've
stopped the attack and want to continue it from the same point,
until you want to start the recovery from the beginning (in this
case, just clear it). This option is also useful when you know
first few characters (or even one) of the password -- so, you
can reduce the number of passwords to verify, by entering an
appropriate initial password into this field.

3.2.4. Selecting the dictionary file

If you want to perform the dictionary attack, just select the
dictionary file. Press the "Select dictionary file" button to
pick up the file name from the list.

3.2.5. Selecting priority

You can select an application priority; it is useful when you
work on machine with many other applications running.

3.2.6. Auto Save Project

You can enable an auto-saving of your project file. Check an
appropriate box and enter an interval between savings.

3.3. Recovery process

After creating the project and selecting all the options, you're
ready to start the recovery process: press the "Start recovery"
button. The program will start to verify the passwords. You can
interrupot the program at any time (by pressing the "Stop"
button), and later resume the process from the same point.

3.4. Status window

All program steps and results are displayed in the Status
Window.  The contents of the Status Window is also saved into
the "ae97pr.log" file for future analysis.

(*) In unregistered version of AE97PR, creating the log file is
disabled.


4. System requirements
----------------------

- Pentium or higher CPU
- Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows NT operating system
- about 1 megabyte of space on hard disk


5. Future enhancements
----------------------

- SMP support
- selecting password masks and regular expressions
- network recovery
- speed improvements


6. Contact information
----------------------

Please send your suggestions and bug reports to
support@elcomsoft.com. The most current version of AE97PR is
always available on http://www.elcomsoft.com/ae97pr.html


Ombudsman statement
-------------------

Elcom Ltd is a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals
(ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works
for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem
with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be
able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or
problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support
for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at 157-F
Love Ave., Greenwood, IN 46142 USA, FAX 317-888-2195, or send email
to omb@asp-shareware.org.
