Even after securing a PDF with password other people can edit it!!! Why?

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
July 29, 2022
3 replies
2953 views

I have Adobe DC Std and have a PDF form with information completed that I have password protected from editing. I have sent this PDF to a colleague and they have managed to edit the information on the form using Adobe Reader. How is this possible? And why is the Adobe Protect functionality not working?

Seems like a pretty big flaw on the software.

Standards and accessibility

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try67

Community Expert

If you want to increase the chances of it working you should:

- Apply a file-open password, not just a file-edit one.

- Digitally sign the file, setting the signature field to lock all fields. This will not prevent someone from editing it per-se, but will allow you to easily prove the file has been edited, as doing so will invalidate the signature.

P

Pkim2021Author

Participating Frequently

Thanks for the suggestion, unfortunately setting a file open password isn't ideal as this document needs to go to the customer as a read only. It would be an inconvenience to ask the customer to enter a password to view the document.

try67

Community Expert

It seems the "editing" you're referring to is filling in form fields, which your security policy allows, so there's no issue there. Either change it so that it's not allowed (but then it will apply to all fields) or set the specific fields you don't want the user to edit as read-only.

Meenakshi_Negi

Legend

Hi Pkim,

Thank you for reaching out.

Could you please share your complete workflow to protect the PDF using a password? Also, how did you send the document to your colleague?

Please try creating a new test PDF and use the same steps to protect it with a password. Check if the same issue occurs.

If yes, share the test PDF with us.

Ensure that you use the steps suggested under the title "Restrict printing, editing, and copying" in the following help document to password protect the PDF: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/securing-pdfs-passwords.html.

Thanks,

Meenakshi