How to Securely Protect Excel VBA Project Code so password recovery programs cannot recover/crack it?

3
votes

I have created an excel workbook application that is free to use; however, I do not wish people to get access to the code itself. What can I do about it?

Currently, it is protected with password; however, even with trial versions of password removal appz it is possible get rid of it.

Moreover, I have found a excel workbook that disables VBA project passwords from other vba projects. how cool is that? No cracing tools or "password removal" workbook works on it.

How to achieve similar security?

Many thanks

1
securityvbapasswordspassword-protection
VBA project password protection is known to be relatively weak: the advice in your situation seems always to recommend recreating your code in (eg) VB.NET and compiling it to a dll. - Tim Williams
In addition to what Tim suggested, VB6 also comes to mind as another possible solution. - JimmyPena
Thank you Tim & JP. I have very limited knowledge about VB.NET and VB6. Please, could you briefly describe the plan for moving from VBA to VB.NET/VB6. Where do I write the code, compile and how do I intergrate it into Excel Workbook. Much Appreciated. - BI Dude
Such an explanation is beyond the scope of this little comment box. Search Stack Overflow for similar questions, or try Google/Bing. - JimmyPena

1 Answers

0
votes

Back in 2003 I password protected an Excel Project with a password that had somewhere between 16-64 characters alpha/numeric/symbol. Two years later I had lost the password and was unable to find any password removal appz that could crack it open for me. I haven't tried to crack it since then so it might be easily opened now.

If you lock a workbook after sharing it, then the project won't be visible until it is unlocked and unshared. On the other hand, those passwords might be even easier to crack, I don't really know.

Now-days I don't bother password protecting my VBA projects. I'm more worried about someone being able to fix a bug then I am about someone causing problems.