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Writer's pictureJosh Stroschein

Removing Passwords from VBA Projects

Updated: Feb 11

Occasionally I’ll encounter a maldoc that has a password-protected VBA project. While tools such as oledump may still extract the macros, the password protection is typically encountered when accessing the project through the Office/VBA IDE (which I typically use for dynamic analysis). This happens rare enough that I often forget the steps of removing the password so thought I’d start collecting possible solutions.


Word – 2007+


Password prompt when accessing the VBA project in the VBA IDE

With this type of document, you can rename the original file with a .zip extension, this will allow you to explore the contents. This type of file uses the Open XML file format, which stores all necessary files and folders in a compressed, ZIP file.


Explore contents of Word document as a ZIP archive

After opening the archive, navigate to the word folder and extract the file vbaProject.bin.

Next, open that file in a hex editor and search for the ASCII string DPB, replace the B with a lower-case x.


Correct instance of DPB string is followed by an equal (=) sign

Save this file and drag/drop into the original location in the archive. Next, remove the zip file extension and add the original doc/docx/etc. You’re now ready to open the document with Word. You may receive an dialog about an invalid property – you can safely ignore this message.


Changing DPB results in an invalid key

Finally, you can open the project via the Developer tab. Right-click on the project in the project explorer window and select <project> properties. On the protection tab, uncheck Lock project for viewing and save the document. This removes this protection and allows you to now access the macros.


Unlocked VBA project

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