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Office updates files just read?


pointertovoid

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Hello dear friends!

I regularly notice that (with Office 2003 Pro) XLS files are modified on my Internet machine, despite their modification date has not changed according to Windows, and their size neither.

Before I imagine some worm...

Can it be that Office writes in the file each time I open an XLS to read it but don't save the changes if any? And that Office restores the old modification date despite having altered the file's contents?

Thank you!

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What, exactly, is being Modified? Can you detect that?

edit - possible - BUT can't tell for sure UNLESS a "clean" XLS is placed into the affect machine and you "edit" (open/close) it and compare "binary" the differences.

quick "google" says SOME kinds of trojans exist, but you need to dfo above first to tell WHAT "may" have changed, otherwise... :unsure:

Edited by submix8c
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What I've seen:

- I make backups of my files between two computers, including XLS files, hence detect changes when synchronizing

- The file properties displayed by Window's Explorer remain the same, including the date of modification and the size

- But the synchronizing software tells that the files have changed

- The user's contents is the same

- When comparing both files with a text editor, hence in a big and not intelligible form, I see one tiny difference, like 2-4 bytes at one single location.

So before considering some kind of malware, I'd like to check more banal explanations.

One possibility would be that Excel stores a "last read date" within the file contents (and not at the containing folder as Windows does), updates it accordingly each time I read the file, but after writing the file with updated "last read date", restores the previous "date of modification" in the folder - something Window allows.

One reason why NSA-like explanations are not my first ones is that I notice this with XLS files only.

Edited by pointertovoid
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I've noticed this as well, a long time ago. File and folder date isn't modified, few bytes inside the file are.

Excel 2003 does it, Excel 2010 doesn't.

Did you investigate it further? I mean... did you ascertain what those changes mean?

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I've noticed this as well, a long time ago. File and folder date isn't modified, few bytes inside the file are.

Excel 2003 does it, Excel 2010 doesn't.

Did you investigate it further? I mean... did you ascertain what those changes mean?

I assumed it's something like "last access timestamp" or probably the counterpart of Word's "store random number to improve merge accuracy" which:

1. I never quite understood how it works

2. I read somewhere is the exact opposite of what it says, as regards to privacy :ph34r:

GL

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- When comparing both files with a text editor, hence in a big and not intelligible form, I see one tiny difference, like 2-4 bytes at one single location.

Compare them in a HEX editor instead :whistle: and post the offset at which the change occurs (it is likely to be a "fixed" address, but verify by checking more that on e "couple" of files).

Even easier :yes: , use FC (with the /B option) and post results:

http://ss64.com/nt/fc.html

jaclaz

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