# Boss has challenged all Staff ! ! !



## excelll-ent (Jul 16, 2005)

...

 

i think he's learnt a great latest protection technique from one of his excel expert friend, or got a bet with his friend (whatever it is, but we've got a challenge in the office, that whoever cracks this empty file, will get a hike !!!   

i've already started dreaming about this hike !  :wink: 

here is the file: please don't let me lose this hike & espacially making me a hero in the office.   


http://s23.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0WKNNM60TFSP2GV6ANDUJF04H


Thanks for any efforts. 
Regards... [/url]


----------



## shajueasow (Jul 16, 2005)

Hi excelllent,

If you are **** sure that the file is empty (but how?) why not create a new file with the same system time and date?
...

hey wait,........cheating is not a good habit.....


----------



## excelll-ent (Jul 16, 2005)

when i saw, that there is a reply, my heart beat stopped working for a second !!!!


----------



## Smitty (Jul 16, 2005)

Please do us all a favor and don't paste links that lead to annoying pop-ups and other crap.    

If you want some help breaking workbook/worksheet protection, do a board search; you will find plenty of results.

As for trying to outwit the boss or his "friend", politely explain that Excel is not a secure environment, nor has it ever been marketed as one.  Breaking it should not be a big suprise to anyone who has done their homework.

Smitty

And SHAJ is right, cheating is not a good habit.


----------



## just_jon (Jul 16, 2005)

> ...  great latest protection technique ...



is an oxymoron in XL.


----------



## excelll-ent (Jul 16, 2005)

well, it seems that the file is not an excel protection only, it's like Trythis.xls.bsf 

Before posting here, i tried a lot with Ultimate Zip *******, it even doesn't recognize the password (status: This file is not protected), whereas it easily cracks all the other files for which i am putting a workbook password.

Thanks for any efforts.
Regards


----------



## shajueasow (Jul 17, 2005)

Hi,
But the .bsf extension was not shown in the downloaded file.


----------



## malcom (Jul 17, 2005)

i tried to open the file.. it appears to be simply a workbook locked  with password to open. i tried it using my password breaker but m sorry.. i wil  rather not continue.. using brute force takes so much time..  
could it be just that ur boss entered a very long password containing upper and lower case letters with numbers and some special characters?


----------



## excelll-ent (Jul 17, 2005)

if you try "Advance Office Password Breaker" It fails to unprotect the workbook and reports that the protection is done through Microsoft Crytography provider i.e. CSP and the file is protection by java layers i.e. (.bsf) and that's how i came to know... Otherwise, i am not an expert to know what .bsf and csp even means.

Thanks again for any efforts...


----------



## Norie (Jul 17, 2005)

Well I'm afraid I can't help because the link you provided is just plain nonsense.

I also looked up the file extensions you mentioned and can't see how they are relevant to Excel.

By the way why should we help you get a hike and make you a hero in the office?

Surely if you were deserving of this you wouldn't need our help.


----------



## excelll-ent (Jul 17, 2005)




----------



## Greg Truby (Jul 20, 2005)

Norie said:
			
		

> {snip}By the way why should we help you get a hike and make you a hero in the office? Surely if you were deserving of this you wouldn't need our help.


Just my 2¢ here - but I'd reckon that'd depend on the nature of the business the company is in.  If the company is a security services company and the employees are expected to be professionals at testing / breaking security systems, then I'd agree; our OP should know this.  

If the company is in a general line of commerce and the boss is trying to utilize the creativity and resourcefulness of his staff to see if they can find, discover or learn how to break this as a means of increasing his company's ability to keep data secure then I reckon Excelll-ent is simply being resourceful.  He was open about what he's up to and why.  And he did post it in the lounge, after all :wink:.


----------



## Norie (Jul 20, 2005)

Greg

This wasn't originally posted in the lounge.

I may have been a bit harsh but I had just spent considerable time trying the OP's link.

I lost count of the number of pop-ups I encountered.

And it eventually led to nothing anyway.

Why not give it a try yourself?


----------



## Greg Truby (Jul 20, 2005)

After what Smitty posted and now you?  Nah, I'll take it on faith that it's a snipe hunt.  Also, I hope I didn't sound too self-righteous with that last post (especially if this didn't start out in the lounge).


----------



## Smitty (Jul 20, 2005)

Pop-ups suck, especially now that our crack IS Team (yeah, on crack!   ) deleted my Google toolbar (along with its nifty pop-up blocker) as an "illegal softwares", and wrote me up for it to boot.

I won't EVEN start to deal with something like that.

Smitty


----------



## Von Pookie (Jul 20, 2005)

Hey Smitty--they haven't blocked your USB ports, have they? 

http://johnhaller.com/jh/mozilla/portable_firefox/

I used this for a few months, it worked pretty well for me. As far as I know, the only thing it really does outside of the USB drive is to create a Mozilla directory in the Application Data. That's something to do with Firefox itself, though, and nothing is actually saved on the PC (like bookmarks, extensions, etc.)


----------



## Smitty (Jul 20, 2005)

> they haven't blocked your USB ports, have they?


No, but WebSense blocks the **** link!    

I'll check from home...

Thanks,

Smitty


----------



## malcom (Jul 21, 2005)

you guys all are talking about pop-ups.. how come i never encountered any when trying to download the file?
after i clicked the link... i was already to choose location and filename... then thats it.. no pop-up at all...
maybe its because my setting of blocking pop-ups is very effective..


----------



## Von Pookie (Jul 21, 2005)

I think they're referring to the popups that appear after clicking the link you posted, not the link to download the file.

Edit: I don't think popups happen all the time, though. Probably depends on what ads they're displaying at the time.

I had to open the link in IE and saw the google toolbar block at least 1-2. Then I turned off the blocker and clicked the link again and got no popups. *shrug*


----------



## davulf (Jul 21, 2005)

IS anyone ever deserving of anything? The answer is no.


----------



## Greg Truby (Jul 21, 2005)

davulf said:
			
		

> IS anyone ever deserving of anything? The answer is no.



Respectfully disagree.  My wife, my son and my daughter deserve a hug and a kiss every morning before I leave for work, among many other things...


----------

