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Question

One Time Password?

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
December 31, 2020
4 replies
3468 views

I have Adobe Acrobat DC and I have not been able to find an answer to this, or not the answer I want to find

.

I have one PDF that I would like to share with multiple people, but temporarily protected. Is it possible to create a one time password? Example: The first person to open the PDF would have to have the password to open it. After the password was entered and the PDF was opened, the password would then be automatically erased.

I know how to remove a password with Acrobat, but not everyone understands Acrobat. There must be a way to make a one-time password that's automatically removed after it opens.

I ended up saving it in our Dropbox account and then sending a link to the PDF, but it just seemed foolish if there wasn't a way to make a one-time password for a PDF.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Sean

How to

This topic has been closed for replies.

try67

Community Expert

> There must be a way to make a one-time password that's automatically removed after it opens.

Don't know what makes you say there must be such a thing. In fact, there isn't. Even if there was, it would just generate a lot of issues. What counts as "opening" the file? How will the file remember that it was opened once before if the user doesn't save it? What happens if a copy is made of the file? etc.

ls_rbls

Community Expert

I believe that can be achieved with Adobe Sign and without using a password.

When you're preparing your PDF in Acrobat, click on the "Sign" tab and then select "Request Signatures" from the context menu:

Or you can go to "Tools" and select the "Request Signatures" tool. Both of these actions will open up the Adobe Sign wizard.

As soon as you begin toprepare the form, the wizard will guide you through the necessary steps.

You'll get more options to assign a password. Knowing the password will allow the user(s) to open and view the document, or, if you prefer, you can select to use the user's own email address as authentication factor (if their email is provided of course). For extra layer of security you should select both methods of authentication: a password and email address associated to the receiving user.

However, if using only a password method -- and for this workflow to be more successful -- the creator of the file must be proactive and check the "viewed" or "not viewed" state of the shared file.

Upon knowing that the file has been opened and viewed, is up to you to change the password and have the user request a password directly from you each time on a "need-to-know" basis.

Last, another convenient perk of employing Adobe Sign in this type of workflow is that your users are not required to have Adobe Reader DC installed in their computer(s) nor a paid subscription of Adobe Acrobat Pro in order to view, fill & sign, and/or print the PDF.

They can do that directly from a web browser and /or mobile phone or tablet as well.

ls_rbls

Community Expert

Unfortunately, for the less computer-literate crowds out there there is no such thing as easy to learn when it comes to enforcing security and electronic records compliance standards. is not even easy to learn for advanced computer users.

That said, also take a look at this other recent discussion:

Encrypt with certificate - does this prevent the pdf from being shared/sent by the recipient?

Specifically this link:

How do I prevent someone from forwarding a PDF?

I would also suggest that you explore some additional features on how to share files using Adobe Sign.

T

Test Screen Name

Legend

Most people haven't got Acrobat...

Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Community Expert

I can see a couple of problems with a one-time password:

What if I need to review the PDF again, even an hour later?
What if my computer crashes while reading it?

That said, I have seen this done with JavaSctipt and the date. I google it and came up with a number of options.

Here is one (I did not test code):

https://answers.acrobatusers.com/Javascript-Expire-Code-q78793.aspx

I imagine you could the same thing by incrementing a variable upon opening; anything greater than 0 (zero) would close the document.

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)

S

Sean_McDAuthor

Inspiring

This is only a temporary password, not a one time open password. Once you've downloaded the PDF, opened and entered in the correct password, the password is removed. You can then open the pdf without having to put in a password anytime.

The only reason for the password is how the pdf is being transferred, if it's sent to the wrong email address, uploaded into the wrong file, ...

The whole point is that not everyone understands Acrobat (my parents or people who rarely use computers). If they could just be sent a secure PDF and have a password, they could then open the PDF with the password and not have to worry about remembering it, writing it down, saving it,.... I know it's "easy" to go in and remove the password protection, but it would take 30 minutes to explain how to some people.

Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Community Expert

I think the same concept could apply with a JavaScript dialogue box and a script that checks a variable. Upon opening the first time the script could test the variable to a bypass setting and save the document.

As pointed out, third party readers may or may not honor the script. You would have to test them.

Hope this makes sense. I'm on my phone so my typing is a lot slower.

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)

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