Open office bypassing MS Office passwords?

[Leahks80]

HI this was pointed out to me by an ms office user who had been using open office for a few days to access password protected files created using Word and Excel 2000. I know ms Office passwords are not very secure at the best of times and are easily cracked these particular documents have been set to be read only unless you supplied a password but using open office the files could be opened modified and saved without any prompts for password, strange? He has since bumped up security on his files which is fine for him but I though any of you who are working in mixed office suite environments might benifit from this piece of info....... I thouhgt the user was spoofing but I have seen it with my own eyes....

[RGB]

It would be nice... but never happened to me!. In fact, I always need to see an ecxell password protected document with organization data from my work that change twice a week, and that obliged me to install the excell viewer
Luckily, that piece of so called software works fine under wine...