[sheetjs]

This password specifically refers to "Password to Modify" and Excel 2019 / 365 clearly warn in the reenter password popup:

> Caution: Password to modify is not a security feature. ... Malicious users can edit the file and remove the password.

This type of "protection" is also present in the VBA blobs (where you can change a few bytes and work around the VBA protection)

Saving a file with a password to open actually employs encryption. The exact setting can be tuned with registry settings, but is typically AES-128-CBC.

Saving a file as "read-only" encrypts the file with the standard password "VelvetSweatshop"

[bbkane]

Huh? I wonder where that default password came from

[sheetjs]

A Seattle Times article from 1989:

> Inside Microsoft – A ‘Velvet Sweatshop’ or a High-Tech Heaven?

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/archive-inside-microso...

[userbinator]

In other words, not much different from PDF's permissions feature.

[SeriousM]

Does PDF has a default password?

[userbinator]

    28 BF 4E 5E 4E 75 8A 41 64 00 4E 56 FF FA 01 08
    2E 2E 00 B6 D0 68 3E 80 2F 0C A9 FE 64 53 69 7A

More like a default key, I suppose.