Python dotx Conversion to docx for Automated Documents

While not exactly security related, I’ve had to do some Python dotx conversion to docx files recently.

Python dotx Conversion – Introduction

I’ve been working on a tool (coming soon?) for automating the my pentest engagement organization.

Part of this tool required me to copy over a .dotx template and save it as a .docx file. The reason for this is that our report templates are .dotx by default, but I wanted to start with a blank .docx for each engagement.

Installing python-docx

First, I installed python-docx.

Rays-MBP:tools doyler$ pip install python-docx
Collecting python-docx
  Downloading python-docx-0.8.6.tar.gz (5.3MB)
    100% |�-��-��-��-��-��-��-��-��-��-��-��-��-��-��-��-��-��-��-��-��-��-��-��-��-��-��-��-��-��-��-��-�| 5.3MB 26kB/s
Requirement already satisfied: lxml>=2.3.2 in /usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages (from python-docx)
Building wheels for collected packages: python-docx
  Running setup.py bdist_wheel for python-docx ... done
  Stored in directory: /Users/doyler/Library/Caches/pip/wheels/cc/74/10/42b00d7d6a64cf21f194bfef9b94150009ada880f13c5b2ad3
Successfully built python-docx
Installing collected packages: python-docx
Successfully installed python-docx-0.8.6

With this installed, I figured I’d be able to go about implementing it in my script. Unfortunately, python-docx does not yet support dotx files out of the box.

Adding support for dotx files

Based on the above GitHub issue, I needed to make a few simple changes to support dotx files.

First, I added the proper content types to api.py. I added macro enabled templates as well, just in case.

Rays-MBP:__ENGAGEMENTS doyler$ vi /usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/docx/api.py

...

def Document(docx=None):
    """
    Return a |Document| object loaded from *docx*, where *docx* can be
    either a path to a ``.docx`` file (a string) or a file-like object. If
    *docx* is missing or ``None``, the built-in default document "template"
    is loaded.
    """
    docx = _default_docx_path() if docx is None else docx
    document_part = Package.open(docx).main_document_part
    if document_part.content_type != CT.WML_DOCUMENT_MAIN:
        tmpl = "file '%s' is not a Word file, content type is '%s'"
        raise ValueError(tmpl % (docx, document_part.content_type))
    return document_part.document
    if document_part.content_type not in [CT.WML_DOCUMENT_MAIN, 'application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.template.main+xml', 'application/vnd.ms-word.document.macroEnabled.main+xml']:

Next, I added the DocumentPart for these content types to the PartFactory in init.

Rays-MBP:__ENGAGEMENTS doyler$ vi /usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/docx/__init__.py

...

PartFactory.part_type_for[CT.WML_DOCUMENT_MAIN] = DocumentPart
PartFactory.part_type_for[CT.WML_DOCUMENT_MAIN] = DocumentPart
PartFactory.part_type_for['application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.template.main+xml'] = DocumentPart
PartFactory.part_type_for['application/vnd.ms-word.document.macroEnabled.main+xml'] = DocumentPart

Document Creation

With the monkey-patches in place, it was time to write the script to create my document.

This is a very simple excerpt, but it opens my template, sets the content type, and saves the file with the new extension.

from docx import Document
from docx.opc.constants import CONTENT_TYPE as CT
document = Document('appsec/web_application_assessment_report.dotx')
document_part = document.part
document_part._content_type = CT.WML_DOCUMENT_MAIN
document.save('/Users/doyler/Documents/__ENGAGEMENTS/__DEMO.docx')

Rays-MBP:__ENGAGEMENTS doyler$ file __DEMO.docx
__DEMO.docx: Microsoft OOXML

Python dotx Conversion – Conclusion

While it isn’t a huge deal to convert from dotx to docx, that code snippet is making my life easier for now.

It is still not quite ready for release, but here is a screenshot of the output for my newEngagement script.

Let me know if you have any ideas or suggestions before I release it! Note that it is still geared towards my specific uses, but is easily modifiable.

Ray Doyle

Ray Doyle is an avid pentester/security enthusiast/beer connoisseur who has worked in IT for almost 16 years now. From building machines and the software on them, to breaking into them and tearing it all down; he’s done it all. To show for it, he has obtained an OSCE, OSCP, eCPPT, GXPN, eWPT, eWPTX, SLAE, eMAPT, Security+, ICAgile CP, ITIL v3 Foundation, and even a sabermetrics certification!

He currently serves as a Senior Staff Adversarial Engineer for Avalara, and his previous position was a Principal Penetration Testing Consultant for Secureworks.

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