Passwords on ODF files

[Matthew Flaschen]

Larry Hartman wrote:
> Can anyone tell me the security benefits of using a 10 character password over 
> a 5 character password for Open Office files?  I am looking for information 
> on how the length of a password affects the encryption of the file.

Basically, longer (and/or more complex) passwords are harder to brute
force.  It takes:

36^5/2 = 30,233,088 guesses on average to find a 5 character password
consisting of random letters and numbers (typical passwords are less
random so using a dictionary can decrease this).

It takes:

36^10/2 = 1,828,079,220,031,488 guesses on average to find a 10
character password.  In other words about 60 million times longer.

Matt Flaschen