Un Protecting excel VBA Project through SendKeys

Question

I am facing a issue while unprotecting the VBA Project of the protected excel.

IntPtr hWnd = FindWindow(null, ES.oXL.VBE.MainWindow.Caption);//Find window
  if (hWnd != IntPtr.Zero)
  {
      bool ret = BringWindowToTop(hWnd); //Bring VBE to top.
  }

  SendKeys.SendWait("%{F11}%TE" + strPassword + "~~%{F11}");
  SendKeys.SendWait("{ENTER}");
  SendKeys.SendWait("xyz");
  SendKeys.SendWait("{ENTER}");

I Wrote a code like this to unprotect the VBA Project. It works fine when debugging application.

We use com object model. when i applied the same dll in the dll hive, call the function i am getting below error

System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception: Access is denied at System.Windows.Forms.SendKeys.SendInput(Byte[] oldKeyboardState, Queue previousEvents)

Any help on this why its working?

may I ask why do you want to unprotect the VB project at runtime? — Our Man in Bananas, Mar 07 '13 at 14:02
We have a requirement to add a new macro to the excel at run time — Naveen Reddy, Mar 07 '13 at 14:38
honestly this is not what you want to do. You should just open the Excel file, unprotect it manually in the Visual Basic Editor Project Explorer, and add the new code before saving the macro workbook and making it available to the users. — Our Man in Bananas, Mar 07 '13 at 14:58
You might want to use APIs as shown [HERE](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16174469/unprotect-vbproject-from-vb-code/16176557#16176557) — Siddharth Rout, Apr 24 '13 at 09:56

Mike Dinescu · Answer 1 · 2013-03-07T15:12:32.760

1

What kind of environment did you deploy into?

It seems like the assembly is not running in a full trust security context which is why certain API calls are not a allowed

From the documentation:

The call to the Shell function requires full trust (SecurityException class).

UPDATE

Based on the OP's comments it appears that indeed the assembly being hosted in a COM+ container is not granted FullTrust.

In order to work around this you might consider deploying a separate assembly into the GAC on the target machine with FullTrust and enable the AllowPartiallyTrustedCallers option on this assembly. This assembly would have to be the one making the calls to SendKeys on your other COM+ hosted assembly.

But in the end, as others have pointed out this may not be the right solution. In general SendKeys should be used very sparingly and there are probably other better ways to accomplish your goals..

edited Mar 07 '13 at 15:12

answered Mar 07 '13 at 13:47

Mike Dinescu

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and that leaves aside the issue of whether anyone could really rely on SendKeys to unprotect the VB Project in a productiion environment anyway - or even whether it should be done! – Our Man in Bananas Mar 07 '13 at 14:02
We are using classic asp as front end. We will deploy our dll objects into com+ Applications – Naveen Reddy Mar 07 '13 at 14:52
what version of Excel are you _trying to use_ and **what are you using it for** - is it reporting or calculation? – Our Man in Bananas Mar 07 '13 at 15:07
we are using office 2010 , we are using it for both reporting and calculation – Naveen Reddy Mar 07 '13 at 15:08

Un Protecting excel VBA Project through SendKeys

1 Answers1