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Participant
March 2, 2021
Question

Protected Mode Whitelist Policy Not Working Fully

  • March 2, 2021
  • 2 replies
  • 429 views

My team is trying to bypass Protected Mode in Reader DC for a single application using a policy file and being met with failure. The policy file is working and Protected Mode is dropping a log file that is listing what is blocked with recommendations on what to allow through for each blocked entry.

 

My policy:

FILES_ALLOW_ANY = %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Create!form*
FILES_ALLOW_ANY = C:\BottomLine Technologies, Inc*
FILES_ALLOW_ANY = SERVERNAME\Create!form
FILES_ALLOW_ANY = CfOWMergeTemp
PROCESS_ALL_EXEC = %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Create!form*
SECTION_ALLOW_ANY = *CfOWHelper.dll
REG_ALLOW_ANY = *CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Printers*

 

Everything else but SECTION_ALLOW_ANY works perfectly fine to bypass Protected Mode. I have even tried SECTION_ALLOW_ANY = * alone in a policy file and sections are still being blocked according to the log files being dropped by Protected Mode.

 

I have tried including the full file paths of the DLL, but I still see the same error message in the log file. CfOWHelper.dll is not included as part of KnownDlls32 from what I can see in the registry and WinObj from SysInternals.

 

SECTION_ALLOW_ANY = C:\Program Files (x86)\Create!form\Plugin\CfOWHelper.dll
SECTION_ALLOW_ANY = C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat Reader DC\Reader\plug_ins\CfOWHelper.dll

 

Does anyone have any experience with this?

2 replies

AnandSri
Legend
February 26, 2025

Hi David!

 

I hope you are doing well.

 

Have you tried the registry entry mentioned above? Let us know if it doesn’t work for you.  For future reference, you can check these articles: https://adobe.ly/3XicUwQ, and https://adobe.ly/3XkXZlv

 

Thanks,

Anand Sri.

Participating Frequently
February 17, 2025

Check this entry

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\DC\FeatureLockDown
Ensure you have bUseWhitelistConfigFile as a DWORD value of 1.

AnandSri
Legend
February 26, 2025

Hi David!

 

I hope you are doing well.

 

Have you tried the registry entry mentioned above? Let us know if it doesn’t work for you.  For future reference, you can check these articles: https://adobe.ly/3XicUwQ, and https://adobe.ly/3XkXZlv

 

Thanks,

Anand Sri.