So if you’re thinking to yourself, “Cool! Microsoft released a tool called the Office 2013 DocRecrypt Tool! I’ll be able to decrypt all those documents and do whatever I want with them! No one can stop me now!”
Not so fast there Kimosabe. You still have to have the escrow key to decrypt files before you can do anything with them. The description is definitely a little misleading if you just read the first bit…
This tool allows admins to unprotect or change the password on password protected OOXML Word, Excel and PowerPoint files.
When in reality the entirety of the description spells things out pretty clearly, removing the would be fun of those without escrow keys.
The tool gives admins who have configured the Escrow key feature options to get access to password protected files. The admin uses the tool and the private key of the escrow certificate to decrypt the file. Once decrypted the admin can choose between creating an unprotected copy of the file and changing the password of the file.
If you’re interested in obtaining the tool though, look no further than the Microsoft Download Center link here:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36443
The Tech Blog of Dan Usher 