Plan cryptography and encryption settings for Office 2013

Applies to: Office 2013, Office 365 ProPlus

Summary: Explains the settings that you can use to encrypt data in Office 2013, and provides information about compatibility with previous versions of Office.

Audience: IT Professionals

Office 2013 contains settings that let you control the way that data is encrypted when you use Access 2013, Excel 2013, OneNote 2013, PowerPoint 2013, Project 2013, and Word 2013.

This article discusses cryptography and encryption in Office 2013, describes the settings that you can use to encrypt data, and provides information about compatibility with previous versions of Office. For information about Outlook 2013, see Plan for email messaging cryptography in Outlook 2013.

As you plan your encryption settings, consider the following:

• We recommend that you do not change the default encryption settings unless your organization's security model requires encryption settings that differ from the default settings.

• We recommend that you enforce password length and complexity to help ensure that strong passwords are used when you encrypt data. For more information, see Plan password complexity settings for Office 2013.

• We recommend that you do not use RC4 encryption. For more information, see Compatibility with previous versions of Office later in this article.

• There isn’t an administrative setting that forces users to encrypt documents. However, there is an administrative setting that prevents users from adding passwords to documents and, therefore, prevent documents from being encrypted. For more information, see Cryptography and encryption settings later in this article.

• Saving documents in trusted locations doesn’t affect encryption settings. If a document is encrypted and it is saved in a trusted location, a user still must provide a password to open the document.

• If you do allow users to password protect documents, and they later forget or lose the password, you can use the DocRecrypt tool to reset or remove the password. For more information, see the Remove or reset file passwords in Office 2013 article.

In this article:

• About cryptography and encryption in Office 2010

• Cryptography and encryption settings

• Compatibility with previous versions of Office

About cryptography and encryption in Office 2010

The encryption algorithms that are available for you to use with Office depend on the algorithms that can be accessed through the APIs (application programming interface) in the Windows operating system. Office 2013, in addition to maintaining support for Cryptography API (CryptoAPI), also includes support for CNG (CryptoAPI: Next Generation), which was first made available in the 2007 Microsoft Office system with Service Pack 2 (SP2).

CNG allows for more agile encryption, where encryption and hashing algorithms that are supported on the host computer can be specified for use during the document encryption process. CNG also allows for better extensibility encryption, where third-party encryption modules can be used.

When Office uses CryptoAPI, the encryption algorithms depend on those that are available in a Crypto Service Provider (CSP), which is part of the Windows operating system. The following registry key contains a list of CSPs that are installed on a computer:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Cryptography/Defaults/Provider

The following CNG encryption algorithms, or any other CNG cipher extension installed on the system, can be used with the 2007 Office system SP2, Office 2010, or Office 2013:

AES, DES, DESX, 3DES, 3DES_112, and RC2

The following CNG hashing algorithms, or any other CNG cipher extension that is installed on the system, can be used with the 2007 Office system SP2, Office 2010, or Office 2013:

MD2, MD4, MD5, RIPEMD-128, RIPEMD-160, SHA-1, SHA256, SHA384, and SHA512

Although there are Office 2013 settings to change how encryption is performed, when you encrypt Open XML Format files (.docx, .xslx, .pptx, and so on) the default values — AES (Advanced Encryption Standard), 128-bit key length, SHA1, and CBC (cipher block chaining) — provide strong encryption and should be fine for most organizations. AES encryption is the strongest industry-standard algorithm that is available and was selected by the National Security Agency (NSA) to be used as the standard for the United States Government. AES encryption is supported on Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows Server 2012.

Cryptography and encryption settings

The following table lists the encryption algorithm settings you can use with Office versions that access CryptoAPI. This includes Office versions up to and including Office 2013.

Encryption algorithm settings for use with CryptoAPI

In Office 2013, if you must change the Encryption type for password-protected Office Open XML files setting, first enable the Specify encryption compatibility setting and select the Use legacy format option. The Specify encryption compatibility setting is available for Access 2013, Excel 2013, PowerPoint 2013, and Word 2013.

The following table lists the settings that are available to change the encryption algorithms when you use Office 2013. These settings apply to Access 2013, Excel 2013, OneNote 2013, PowerPoint 2013, Project 2013, and Word 2013.

Settings that change the encryption algorithm

The following table lists additional CNG settings that can be configured for Excel 2013, PowerPoint 2013, and Word 2013.

Excel 2013, PowerPoint 2013, and Word 2013 specific CHG setting

You can use the setting that is listed in the following table to prevent users from adding passwords to documents. This prevents users from encrypting documents.

Setting used to prevent users from password protecting a document

Compatibility with previous versions of Office

If you have to encrypt Office documents, we recommend that you save the documents as Open XML Format files (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx, and so on) instead of Office 97–2003 format (.doc, .xls, .ppt, and so on). The encryption that is used for binary documents (.doc, .xls, .ppt) uses RC4. It isn’t recommended, as discussed in Security Considerations sections 4.3.2 and 4.3.3 of the Office Document Cryptography Structure Specification. Documents that are saved in the older Office binary formats can only be encrypted by using RC4 to maintain compatibility with older versions of Office. AES, the default and recommended encryption algorithm, is used to encrypt Open XML Format files.

Office 2013, Office 2010, and the 2007 Office system let you save documents as Open XML Format files. In addition, if you have Office XP or Office 2003, you can use the Compatibility Pack to save documents as Open XML Format files.

Documents that are saved as Open XML Format files and encrypted by using Office 2013 can only be read by Office 2013, Office 2007 SP2, and Office 2003 with the Office 2007 SP2 compatibility pack. To ensure compatibility with all previous versions of Office, you can create a registry key (if it doesn’t already exist) under HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\<application>\Security\Crypto\ called CompatMode and disable it by setting it to 0. The values that you can enter for <application> represent the specific Office application that you are configuring this registry key for. For example, you can enter Access, Excel, PowerPoint, or Word. It is important to realize that, when you set CompatMode to 0, Office 2013 uses an Office 2007 compatible encryption format, instead of the enhanced security that is provided by default when you use Office 2013 to encrypt Open XML Format files. If you have to configure this setting for compatibility reasons, we recommend that you also use a third-party encryption module that allows for enhanced security, such as AES encryption.

If your organization uses the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint File Formats to encrypt Open XML Format files, you should review the following information:

• By default, the Compatibility Pack uses the following settings to encrypt Open XML Format files:

  • Microsoft Enhanced RSA and AES Cryptographic Provider (Prototype),AES 128,128 (on the Windows XP Professional operating system).

  • Microsoft Enhanced RSA and AES Cryptographic Provider,AES 128,128 (on Windows Server 2003 and Windows Vista operating systems).

• Users aren’t notified that the Compatibility Pack uses these encryption settings.

• The graphical user interface on earlier versions of Office might display incorrect encryption settings for Open XML Format files if the Compatibility Pack is installed.

• Users can’t use the graphical user interface in earlier versions of Office to change the encryption settings for Open XML Format files.

See also

Guide to Office 2013 security
Overview of security in Office 2013
Configure security by using OCT or Group Policy for Office 2013
Remove or reset file passwords in Office 2013

Office Document Cryptography Structure Specification