Document protection password issues

Question

I have an application that creates RTF documents with password protected form protection(same password always used).   Unprotecting certain docs only works on certain machines - on others it gives an invalid password error. I'm wondering if something with IRM is causing this.

Answer 1

Hi Joel,

Thank you for the reply.

Are the computer on domain or network?

Are there any similarities with the systems you face this issue?

What happens if the computer is removed from the domain and connected as the local user, does the issue occur?

Which application are you using and where are you using the \passwordhash?

Provide more information  to assist you better.

You may restart computer in Windows Safe mode with Networking following the steps mentioned in this link and check if the issue occurs:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Start-your-computer-in-safe-mode

If it works in Windows Safe mode, then perform Windows Advanced Clean boot to figure if there is a startup or a program is causing the problem:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135

Note: Ensure you restart the computer in normal mode after troubleshooting.

Thank you.

Answer 2

Hi Aravinda,

Thanks for replying.  It doesn't sound like it's related to IRM.  I found out the site doesn't have it enabled.   Essentially the issue is with one user/machine, but can be replicated on other machines at the client site as well.  We have a background process that unprotects the doc and adds a watermark.  

I was able to narrow it down to just the password.  If I edit a 'good' RTF and add the \passwordhash from the 'bad' RTF to it, I can no longer unprotect the good RTF file. But either password works fine when I unprotect the documents here.  

This only happens with a subset of the documents produced.  My current thought track is if some of the docs are encrypted with a different alogrithm that the boxes on site cannot decrypt. 

Thanks for any input.

Joel

Answer 3

Hi Joel,

Thank you for posting. I will help you with your Word issue.

However, I would need some information.

Does the issue occur with different users on their machines or is it specific to few users?

How is the IRM implemented?

If you are using IRM, then you may post your question in Word IT pro forum mentioned below:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/word/threads

Thank you.