CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pdfghostscriptpassword-protection
Rade_303
Rade_303

Reputation: 905

Ghostscript does not honor PDF security permissions

I need to protect a set of PDF files that will be exposed to users on a webpage. PDF should only be readable, no other permission should be possible.

Using pdftk I have created "secured" PDF which I have tested both in various browsers. So far so good. 

pdftk input.pdf output protected.pdf owner_pw <PASSWORD_GOES_HERE>

But a colleague of mine pointed me a way which with Ghostscript 8.70 it is possible to remove the protection:

ghostscript -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOutputFile=unprotected.pdf -c .setpdfwrite -f protected.pdf

Does this means that Ghostcript does not honor security permissions?

I wanted to try signing with a certificate, but I've seen that this can also be circumvented: http://ronin-group.org/misc_pdfsignatures.html

How to genuinely protect the content from PDF from users when serving them in web pages?

Upvotes: 3

Views: 2177

Answers (1)

Kurt Pfeifle
Kurt Pfeifle

Reputation: 90193

"How to genuinely protect the content from PDF from users when serving them in web pages?"

You cannot.

Upvotes: 4

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