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M I N I - H E L P
MDB RECOVER PASSWORD

By:   Pierce Business Systems
Web:  http://www.pb-sys.com/
Mail: mailto:MDBReco@pb-sys.com
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- Target MDB File:  This is the MDB file whose password you are attempting 
  to lookup, remove, or set.

- Blank MDB File (no p/w):  This is a blank MDB file with *NO* PASSWORD.  
  You should create this with your copy of Access.  Think of the Blank MDB 
  File as a template from which this app looks up the encryption key.  
  If you have an existing MDB with no password that was created with your 
  copy of Access, then go ahead use it rather than creating a new mdb.

  What I have found is that Microsoft has many different versions of the 
  encryption key out there; so Michael Kaplan's code (located at
  http://www.trigeminal.com/) uses one key whereas most of the code on 
  Planet Source uses one of two different algorythms (located at 
  http://www.planet-source-code.com./PlanetSourceCode).  All the keys 
  cannot be correct, so I just have the app reverse engineer the 
  encryption key for your specific copy of Access on the fly.  This works 
  great for Access 97 (lookup, remove, and set password), and after a 
  bunch of testing and file comparing (fc.exe in \win\command), Access 
  2000 (but only for the lookup).   One user reported an error with this
  app using the Clear Password and Set Password, so I removed the 
  functionality to prevent other's from experiencing the bug.



- Access 95/97: MDB Recover PW works great on these older versions (I have 
  not yet tested on Access 95, but thoroughly tested on Access 97).  You 
  can Show the password; but no longer Remove it, or Set it.

- Access 2000: MDB Recover PW will only Show the password, you cannot 
  Remove nor re-Set the password on Access 2000 databases.  For those of 
  you wondering, the trick to Access 2000 decryption was to stuff a chr(0) 
  between each character of the password before encrypting and after 
  decrypting.  Another difference (from standard Access 97 crack code) 
  is that the password is longer.  Using these two tidbits of info., 
  you should be able to take and modify Michael Kaplan's code above, or 
  the code on Planet-Source.



- Show Password: This function will popup a message box containing the 
  target MDB's password enclosed in quotes, or a message indicating that 
  there is no password if that is true.

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Please note that it is still against the law to break 
into an Access database if you are not the lawful 
owner.  So, please do not use this for rotten purposes.
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