VeryPDF Support,
We purchased a VeryPDF developer license back in December 2008, and it has been a great tool...thank you! We sometimes use the -openpwd option to encrypt the pdf and require a password to open it. We've always thought that the resulting pdf was, in fact, encrypted and protected from anybody being able to view it without the correct password. Today, however, something disturbing happened: We emailed a password-protected pdf to a client. When he opened it on his Windows computer, it required the password, as expected. But, when he opened it on his iPad, it opened without even requesting a password! How can this be?
It sounds like the encryption option doesn't actually encrypt the document...it just encrypts a password. Then, any program following the rules (such as Adobe Reader) will not open the document; but if a program is designed to ignore the password (such as that used on the iPad?), it can open and display the document as it would any other document.
I played around with various parameters, without any success. Is there some way to really make the pdf secure? Perhaps an update to the program? Thank you.
Sincerely,
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Hi,
Thanks for your message, yes, you are right, -openpwd option to encrypt the pdf and require a password to open it, nobody can open this PDF file if he unknow the password, also, you may use both -openpwd and -ownerpwd parameters to try again, we hoping these parameters will solve this problem to you,
-openpwd <string> : Set 'open password' to PDF file
-ownerpwd <string> : Set 'owner password' to PDF file
VeryPDF
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Thanks for getting back to me. Unfortunately, even when I use both -openpwd and -ownerpwd, the pdf can be opened on an Apple iPad without requesting a password! How can we make it secure?
By the way, when I tried specifying both passwords yesterday, pcltool.exe kept aborting, with no error message. When I tried again today, I discovered if I did not also use the -view parameter, the two password parameters could work together. When -view is used, either one but not both can be specified. Odd, but not a big problem. If we cannot make the pdf secure, that is a big problem.
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Just for checking, can you open this PDF file on your Apple iPad without requesting a password? This PDF file was created by pcltool.exe by -openpwd and -ownerpwd parameters.
VeryPDF
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Thank you for your patience. It turns out with both passwords, the document is secure (while it is not if only one password or the other is used).
When I sent a test document using both passwords to my client yesterday, he replied last night, "Unfortunately it didn't work." I assumed he meant it was still opening without a password as the previous (one-password) documents had. That's when I emailed you again.
However, when I talked to him today, he explained that he meant he could not open it at all, and only later found by tapping around on the iPad it eventually asked for the password.
Problem solved...I will program to always use both password parameters. Thanks again.
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Thank you for your message, if we can be of any other assistance, please feel free to let us know.
VeryPDF
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