CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptpdfpdf.js
humanityANDpeace
humanityANDpeace

Reputation: 4637

Does pdf.js execute javascript contained in a pdf file?

It appears that PDF has, for lack of a better term the "feature" to contain javascript, but luckily it seems there is a change that only some software implements support for javascript

Since web browsers deal already with the issue to handle tons of untrusted input, and hence do some sort of sandboxing, I rather appreciate to open pdf documents inside the browser sandbox via pdf.js. However I wonder if pdf.js will implement the "javascript contained in pdf file misfeature"?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 1861

Answers (2)

Stephan Rauh
Stephan Rauh

Reputation: 3160

Update 2022: Since Summer 2021, pdf.js (and by extension, my library ngx-extended-pdf-viewer) uses Quick.js to run JavaScript in a sandbox. You've already mentioned that the browser runs JavaScript in a sandbox, so this is a sandbox running in a sandbox. The Mozilla team didn't want to give the JavaScript code embedded in the PDF file access to browser resources.

If you're using Firefox as a PDF viewer, you're using a slightly different version of pdf.js. It runs the JavaScript code in the same sandbox that runs Firefox WebExtensions.

Here's an article written by the authors of the JavaScript implementation: https://hacks.mozilla.org/2021/10/implementing-form-filling-and-accessibility-in-the-firefox-pdf-viewer/

Upvotes: 2

Ika
Ika

Reputation: 406

pdf.js still does not support embedded javascript

There are some other implementations (e.g. https://www.pdftron.com/webviewer/demo/pdf-forms) but most of them have some limitations unless you are looking for simple field/form calculations

Upvotes: 1

Related Questions