Re: Excel protected workbook appears opaque to virus-scan?

sebthirlway@hotmail.com wrote:

> I've just developed an Excel workbook with VBA in it, which has been
> sent as a questionnaire to c. 400 associates nationwide, as an email
> attachment.
>
> Some users are not receiving these emails, because the email scanning
> software in their organisation is objecting to the file.

> The only thing I can imagine the security software objecting to is the
> fact that the workbook and worksheets are "protected" with a password.
> Now this is _not_ encryption: simply a cosmetic measure that prevents
> users from changing certain features of the spreadsheet - anyone can
> open the workbook and have a look at everything in it. (To repeat the
> point: this is not a password-protected file, which requires a password
> to be opened: workbook/worksheet protection is distinct from that).

The anti virus software or mail filters might not be 'smart' enough to
differentiate a read password from a write password and just block the
whole file outright (our Sophos/MailMarshal combo has this problem).

Remove the password altogether. You will still see emails getting
blocked on the VBA code however.
Received on Mon May 1 00:57:38 2006