Their advisory says that this protection is only to protect against accidental modification....harumph! That's not what they used to say;) http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/prodt echnol/office/office2000/reskit/ork2000/html/65t2_2.asp -----Original Message----- From: Thorsten Delbrouck-Konetzko [mailto:Thorsten.Delbrouck@guardeonic.com] Sent: Friday, January 02, 2004 5:51 AM To: bugtraq@securityfocus.com Cc: Microsoft Security Response Center Subject: Microsoft Word Protection Bypass Hi all, Microsoft Word provides an option to protect "forms" by password. This is used to ensure that unauthorized users cannot manipulate the contents of documents except within specially designed "form" areas. This feature is also often used to protect documents which do not even have form areas (quotations/offers etc.). This form protection can easily be removed without any additional tools (apart from a hex-editor). Please find the full advisory attached. best regards, /tdk -- Thorsten Delbrouck Chief Information Officer Guardeonic Solutions AG Rosenheimer Str. 116 D-81669 Munich ---------------------------------