Workbook has become password protected without user intervention - anybody else seen this?

A strange one ....

I have a set of macro workbooks sitting in a SharePoint document library. I made an amendment to add a BeforeSave subroutine in one of the workbooks to add some records to an Oracle database from data in one of the sheets. After saving to the document library, attempts to reopen the workbook result in a file open password challenge. The code in the workbook does not control any type of protection. No-one has apparently been involved in password protecting the workbook. The other workbooks are unaffected.

Has anyone come across anything like this before? Ideally, I'm trying to get the workbook open and remove the password protection - the problem is that I don't know what password has been assigned by whatever process has been involved.

Any insights gratefully received.

What a nightmare, I hope to never see it. We are forbidden, by forum rules, to discuss any password hacking software

In the line of not discussing it, if it's a password to open, it's likely to be problematic. A brute force attack with no guesses can take days.

I tested some software a few days ago. Workbook, worksheet and VBA passwords, no problem. Password to open, no chance. Gave up with it in the end.

Thanks for the replies

I'm not expecting to be able to guess the password. I was clinging to the hope that the unusual way in which the password protection appeared might be due to some security feature which had been triggered and therefore documentation might exist which would disclose what the password was.

Let us know how it turns out - please.

Solved it

The Before_Save subroutine had a variable called Password which was being used to open an Oracle session. I'm guessing that this is a reserved word and the application somehow interpreted this as an instruction to save the Excel file as password encrypted.

The solution was simply to open the file using the Oracle password.

The code has now been changed to use a different variable name and now works as expected.

Thanks to all for their help.

Glad you found the answer ... and thanks for sharing

Yes, indeed, that was a conundrum for sure!