使用Apache POI的密码保护.XLS Excel文件

Question

I am using Apache POI 3.11, which is supposed to support password-protecting Excel files (both XLS and XLSX types). I was easily able to get encrypting of the XLSX type to work properly using POI, but I have been unable to do this with the old XLS type. I have attempted this using the following code, but all it does is create a copy of the file without setting a password on it. As far as I can tell from the examples and API, this is how it is supposed to be done, but I cannot get it to work.

    HSSFWorkbook wb = new HSSFWorkbook(new FileInputStream(sourcePath));
    Biff8EncryptionKey.setCurrentUserPassword("potato");
    OutputStream os = new FileOutputStream(destinationPath);
    wb.write(os);
    os.flush();
    os.close();

Any suggestions would be appreciated. As a last resort, I can perhaps use a different library, but I would prefer to use POI since this is what we use for everything else that is Excel-related.

Answer 1

As per the Apache POI Encryption Supported Features Matrix , HSSF only supports decrypting .xls files protected with a known password. It does not support encrypting them. (XSSF can work with both encrypting and decrypting .xlsx files)

Therefore, if you do want to support encrypting .xls files with Apache POI's HSSF, you'll need to get involved with the project and then work on submitting a patch for this missing piece of functionality!