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Password-protected PDFs

by Gloria McConnell

So, you have taken precautions to protect your PDF file by setting various limitations and requiring a password to allow changes to the settings. In some cases, you may want to require a password just to open the file.  Adobe Acrobat allows you to password-protect the following actions:

» Opening a document
» Printing
» Changing the document
» Commenting
» Form field completion and signatures
» Document assembly
» Content copying
» Accessibility (text access for screen reader devices)
» Page extraction

Other PDF programs, such as Nitro PDF, provide similar security settings.

Your file is protected, right? Probably not, as discussed in the following paragraphs. 

Crack the Code

Perhaps you have a legitimate reason to open (and/or copy from, change, print, or add comments in) a password-protected file, but do not have the password. I had such an experience recently. A PDF reference document for a course I’m taking is completely blocked except for printing. I would like to use highlighting and commenting in this file for my personal use, but I can’t.

Maybe you have a password-protected file and need to make a simple change. PDF-ing the source again might be a complex, time-consuming effort. You’re on a deadline and you have forgotten the password! (Or your coworker, who knows it, is on vacation in Tanzania.)

Enter PDF password-cracking software. Several companies offer it, including those in the following list. I tried the  PDFKey Pro demo and it seemed to work like a charm (the demo allows you to unlock one page).

So, if you find yourself with a legitimate need to “get into” a password-protected PDF file, all may not be lost! Following are just three of the many products that will crack the PDF password(s) for you.

» Guaranteed PDF Decrypter
» PDFKey Pro
» Recover PDF Password Mac or PC

Beef up the Protection

On the other hand, if you need a protection code that can’t be cracked, turn to products such as:

» Lizard Safeguard
» Book Guard Pro
» CrypKey

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 26th, 2010 at 9:42 pm and is filed under January/February 2010 Issue, Rough Draft Newsletter, Tooling Around. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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