How to bypass password of VBA project in Excel?

For my job, I use Excel a lot and I have been working with VBA for many years to simplify my life by automating certain boring tasks. So that colleagues who are less comfortable with Excel do not come and spoil my files and my code, I have protected it with a password. However, as time went by, I forgot some passwords on old files.

Well, you'll see that in the end it's not that difficult to break this password! And that should make you think twice about the real security of your excel files protected by mot de passe !

Protect your VBA project with a password

If you're reading this article, chances are you already know how to password protect a VBA project. But here's a quick reminder for those who want to get started. The steps are relatively similar, regardless of your version of Excel. In my case, I used Excel 2016.

So to get started, head over to the tab Junior Backend Developer (Intern) And click Macros.

If you don't see the Developer tab, go to File> Options and then Customize the ribbon. Select Junior Backend Developer (Intern) in the left window and press Add>> to integrate it into the menu.

Once you have selected Macros in the tab Junior Backend Developer (Intern), enter a name for your macro (it doesn't matter, it's just to have something to password protect) and click Create.

Copy and paste the following code into your macro… It’s a very simple macro that will write a piece of text in cell A1 and whose only purpose is to have something to protect.

Range("A1").Value = "Password cracked!!"

And you should have something like this in your VBA editor:

In the VBA editor, go to Tools > VBAProject Properties… Select the tab Protection and you will be able to define a password! Also remember to check the box Lock the project for viewing so no one can see this mind-blowing code!

Press OK and save your file in XLSM format (the one that supports macros). We will be able to test if the manipulation worked. To do this, close and reopen your Excel file then go to the tab Junior Backend Developer (Intern) And click Visual Basic.

When you want to go to the VBA project that interests us, a window will open to ask for the password.

Now we can try to crack this password!

How to remove a VBA password?

Now let's move on to the difficult part... don't worry, nothing really complicated and we'll see everything together step by step. Before anything else,e, make a backup of the file that you want to crack, in case the method doesn't work.

First, we're going to need to use a hex editor. If you don't have one, HxD is a good free option, but there are plenty of alternatives available.

Preparing our XLSM file

In the case of an XLSM file (files with Macro from recent versions of Excel), you will have to do a little additional manipulation compared to an XLS file.

Find the file on your Hard disk, then rename it by adding .zip at the end.

Then open it with an archive compression software like WINRAR, IZArc or just Windows Explorer on Windows 10. You should then find a folder there labeled xl.

In this folder, look for the file called vbaProject.bin, extract it and open it with your hex editor.

If your file is in XLS format, open it directly in the hex editor without changing the extension!

Disable password

This is where it comes in handy to know how to set up a password.

In fact, you will have to create a new fake Excel document, add a macro to it and define a password (which you will have to remember) as described at the beginning of this article. This file will be used to crack the file on which you want to remove the password. The idea is that we will take the hexadecimal code that indicates the password and insert it into the file we want to access. Basically, it's a transplant!

That's why with this dummy file, you have to reproduce all the steps until extracting the vbaProject.bin file.

You should now have both of your vbaProject.bin files open in your hex editor. Don't mix them up!!!

Use Ctrl + F in the editor to find the following characters:

CMG=

This is the beginning of the code that indicates the current password. We need to copy and paste three values ​​and their contents:

CMG=
DPB=
GC=

And this is what it gives:

Transfer this code to your other vbaProject.bin file, and place it in the same place (where you find the 3 aforementioned values ​​CMG, DPB and CG), making sure not to delete anything else. Save your edited hex file.

Now, delete the original vbaProject.bin file from the document we are trying to remove protections from. Replace it with your edited vbaProject.bin file, then change its filename from .zip to .xlms or .xls depending on what you originally had.

Open your file in Excel.

Go to the tab Junior Backend Developer (Intern) And click Visual Basic. Then try again to access the VBA project you want to unlock. A window will ask you for your password.

Normally, if everything worked, the password that will work is the one you created for the second document, the dummy document.

What if it doesn't work?

If you ever have a problem and Excel tells you that the file is corrupt, you will have to try again with a copy of the backup of the file that you made. The reason for this problem is that the string of characters that you pasted to replace the one in the file to be cracked was longer than the one in the fake file.

In this case, you need to add 0s (zeros) to the string you are pasting, just before the final quotes.

CMG="xxxxxx"\r\nDPB="xxxxxxxx"\r\nGC="xxxxxxxxxx"

CMG="XXXX00"\r\nDPB="XXXXX000"\r\nGC="XXXXXX0000"

In the second string, we added 0s so that it would be the same length as the original one in the file to be cracked!

Please let us know if you have simpler solutions or if you don't understand, in the comments below!

Article updated on February 27, 2026 by Byothe