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Participant
January 12, 2021
Answered

Password

I'm being asked for a password to open a document that I don't remember setting a password for. How do I recover a password?

 

 

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    Dov Isaacs
    Dov IsaacsCorrect answer
    Legend
    January 12, 2021

    If you received the PDF file from someone else, ask them for the password they set for it.

     

    If you created the PDF file yourself and either intentionally password protected the PDF file or unintentionally password protected the PDF file and have forgotten the password, you are out of luck. There is no “back door” to bypass this protection nor does Adobe secretly maintain copies of passwords you use on PDF files. Otherwise the PDF password protection really wouldn't be protection.

     

    Sorry, but you might be out of luck on this!

     

    - Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)
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    7 replies

    CHRISTOPHER98C6
    Participant
    February 7, 2021

    That can not be true. the passwords HAVE to be stored somewhere-somehow on your system or in you account. otherwise How can the program check the password you have entered against the actual password?  it needs that actual password that was orginally created and stored somewhere to check against to verify.

    SO in what kind of file the Adobe cloud store the passwords in my account or on my computer?

    and where? 

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    Dov Isaacs
    Dov Isaacs
    Legend
    February 7, 2021

    It certainly IS true!

     

    Passwords don't necessarily work the way you think they do. In the case of PDF files, the password itself is the key to decrypting the PDF file. It doesn't depend on a password being stored someplace else to compare against. That is much more secure than storing the password someplace else and comparing against same. Likewise, it allows you to send a password-protected PDF file to others on different computers and for them to be able to open the PDF file (assuming they know the password independently) without needing to be on-line to somehow compare against a password stored someplace else!

     

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    - Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)
    CHRISTOPHER98C6
    Participant
    February 8, 2021

    So then how does the file or the system know you entered the correct PW if it has nothing to compare it to? 

    Somewhere it has to have the PW stored so it can comapre what you entered to the correct PW. 

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    Dov Isaacs
    Dov IsaacsCorrect answer
    Legend
    January 12, 2021

    If you received the PDF file from someone else, ask them for the password they set for it.

     

    If you created the PDF file yourself and either intentionally password protected the PDF file or unintentionally password protected the PDF file and have forgotten the password, you are out of luck. There is no “back door” to bypass this protection nor does Adobe secretly maintain copies of passwords you use on PDF files. Otherwise the PDF password protection really wouldn't be protection.

     

    Sorry, but you might be out of luck on this!

     

    Translate
    - Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)
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