Using a password to restrict unauthorized access in the VBA projects is an easy way to enhance protection for your confidential information. However, losing this password, or not having the password for some work that someone else did for you can be quite inconvenient. This is when you need to use VBA password recovery software.

Here we will discuss two very popular VBA password recovery packages that can help you to get access to your vital VBA modules with or without your lost password. Read more to learn about this software.

Elcomsoft: Advanced VBA Password Recovery (AVPR)

Elcomsoft developed one of the most effective VBA password recovery packages, Advanced VBA Password Recovery (AVPR).  This offers two techniques to recover your locked VBA project from the file:

• Recovering the password.
• Accessing the VBA module by bypassing the password protection.

The basic features and strength of AVPR are:

• It supports all the Microsoft versions for password recovery procedure from Office 97 to 2007.
• Capable of accessing VBA projects stored in Word, Excel, Access, Outlook, PowerPoint, Visio and other Microsoft applications.
• Compatible with non-office applications like AutoCAD, Corel WordPerfect Office etc.
• The biggest strength of AVPR is- it is very much capable of utilizing the ‘Backdoor’ technique to retrieve data from a VBA project which doesn’t require any password.

AVPR

Price: There are two different versions of AVPR are available in the market which includes the Home version ($49) and the Business version ($99). You can also download the trial version of AVPR before purchasing the full version.

However, if you want to have the full collection of password recovery software for all kind of Word, Excel, Access, Money, Outlook, Power Point files and VBA projects passwords. then ElcomSoft also offers a complete solution.

AOPR

Advanced Office Password Recovery offers all these service for you which supports Microsoft Office version 2.0 to 2007 with its effective methods of password recovery. However, if you want to receive the VBA password recovery option in the package then you need to purchase the AOPR 4.11 standard version or the professional version. The standard edition costs $99 while the professional edition costs $199. 

VBA, or Visual Basic for Applications, is a popular feature in Microsoft Office which allows creation of macros, short programs which automate repetitive operations, or even create a complete application. VBA is available in Microsoft Word, Excel and Access, and even some non Microsoft applications but is most commonly used in Excel. You can apply passwords to VBA to protect the code from view or modification.

This article is about password security for VBA modules or macros, how to apply VBA passwords in Excel files and how you can recover password protected VBA modules if you lose the password.

Functions of VBA

VBA is a flexible programming language with an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) which allows the users to work with an application specific dialect of Microsoft Visual Basic (note: this is not compatible with VB.NET).

VBA can be used to customize user interfaces, automate repetitive operations, or even build a complete turnkey application, and is widely used in business for rapid development of small end user applications. Some companies build complex models using VBA as it is potentially very powerful.

VBA Password Security

Since VBA is a programming environment, a VBA macro may be quite complex, and form a bundled application. This may include a lot of sensitive processes or intellectual property that should be protected from casual viewing or modification.

Fortunately along with the normal data of a Word or Excel file, the macros or VBA modules can also be password protected. This can be used to provide a level of security against casual modification or viewing of your code, but is not particularly secure against a determined hacker.

How to password protect VBA in Excel

Though VBA passwords can be applied in Word and Access files, VBA passwords are more commonly used to protect VBA projects or macros in Excel files, generally to ensure protection of intellectual property or prevent unauthorised modifications to the macros.

In order to activate VBA password, first right click on the VBA module, then click on VBA Project Properties. Select the ‘Protection Tab’ from there. A new window will be opened. Put tick on ‘Lock Project for Viewing’ option. After that you need to insert the password in ‘Password to view Project Properties’ dialogue box. Click on ‘Ok’ to complete the whole process.

Make sure that you select a secure password if you want any level of protection. You can use the techniques discussed in the article: ‘Selecting a secure password’ to set up an effective and safe password.

VBA password recovery

If you ever accidentally lose your VBA password, or if you need to modify unsupported VBA code that is locked, then there is no need to worry. VBA passwords protect against casual inspection of your code, but they are not totally secure, and there are workarounds.

There are a number of effective VBA password recovery software packages available which allow you to gain access to the VBA module by bypassing the password protection. Essentially these work by replacing the existing password with a blank or a new password.

Ultimate Zip Cracker and ElcomSoft offer VBA password recovery software. You can learn more about this software in our VBA password recovery software article.

Protecting spreadsheet software

As you have read, it is relatively easy for someone with the right software to bypass the password protection, no matter how secure your password is. What can you do to protect your spreadsheet program source code?

You can write the code partially in VBA, and write the important parts in a compiled language, such as C, and turn the code into a DLL, which can be called from Excel. The DLL will not include the original C source code. The other benefit of this is that your code will run a lot faster than VBA.

Conclusion

VBA offers flexibility and power, and has a password protection option that protects against casual inspection or modification of your code.

This can’t really be regarded as secure however. There are a number of packages that allow you to replace the VBA password, or remove it altogether.