[Libreoffice] Encrypted password -- change?

[Dennis E. Hamilton]

I am thinking two (or three) different features are being confused with each other.

In LibreOffice 3.4.0rc2 on Windows, there is no change password option on the Security tab.  There is a "Change Password" button on the General tab. It doesn't seem to do anything.  It  is never not gray.  See <http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/libreoffice/2011-May/012982.html>.
 
The various dialogs for requesting entry of a password are the same.  Be careful not to confuse this button (when it works) and the dialogs for entering a password to lock the read-only state of the document and the separate Save As ... option for encrypting the document.  Neither of those have much to do with a feature for changing the encryption password of an already-encrypted document.  The Release Note says there is a new feature about document encryption.  Not read-only locking.

Changing the encryption password requires re-encrypting the document and it can only be done after de-encrypting the document.  Having a button for it is of only of marginal benefit over doing a Save As of the decrypted document with a new password.

Changing the read-only state lock simply requires storing a different hash in the (unsaved) document.  (This is called encryption of the password, not encryption of the document.  The default hash procedure is not a very strong encryption.  The lock is easily removed without having to know the password.  The only justification for the hash is to keep the password a secret.  Since the hash is exposed to compromise, a valuable password should not be used.)  

Is it possible that the two uses of passwords on documents are being confused?

See also
<http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/libreoffice/2011-May/013043.html>
<https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=37628>

 - Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Marc Paré
<http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/libreoffice/2011-May/012994.html>
Sent: Monday, May 30, 2011 22:47
To: libreoffice at lists.freedesktop.org
Subject: Re: [Libreoffice] Encrypted password -- change?

Le 2011-05-30 15:24, Cor Nouws a écrit :
<http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/libreoffice/2011-May/012970.html>
[ ... ]
> Safe to include :-)
> Cor
>
>> [1] http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleaseNotes/3.4
[ ... ]

Thanks Cor. Don't know why it didn't work on mine. I'll use your .png for the 3.4 webpage.

Cheers

Marc