ChatGPT is removing security settings on password protected documents

[Production@McStatts]

I just tested to see what the ChatGPT can do when I uploaded a password protected pdf document. I told it to make and printable format. It then asked me if it wanted to add trim marks and bleed, and made a pdf i can download.  It had removed all security preferences! I looked up what AI said about this and it said it was not able to remove password restrictions. However, this ONLY applies to the password OPENING THE DOCUMENT. It can remove everything if it can open the document. So, why can't you make it so it can't remove ANY restrictions! without this it does no good to have print and edit restrictions!!

[Randy Hagan]

Maybe because it hasn't occurred to them yet?

But this in't the place to report this, but thank you for sharing it with us.  If you want, can use this link to report it to Adobe Systems. This is a user-to-user forum. 

Randy

[Production@McStatts]

Thanks fo your reply and I will also reprot it.

However, this seems like the perfect place to post as this is a major user issue that everyone needs to be aware of, especially when they will see that people are printing from files that shouldn't be able to and even making changes.

[AnandSri]

Hello @Production@McStatts 

I hope you are doing well, and thank you for reaching out.

++ In addition to what our community product expert has already shared, we will share the feedback with the product team for consideration.

Adobe Acrobat allows you to apply two types of password protection to PDFs:

1. Open Password: prevents anyone from opening the document without the password.
2. Permissions Password: restricts actions like printing, editing, or copying, but does not prevent opening the file.

Please note that once a PDF is opened (with or without a password), the permission restrictions are not enforced by all software tools. Many third-party apps and some AI-based tools can ignore or bypass these restrictions because they are not encrypted but rather flagged within the PDF metadata. These flags rely on the viewer to respect them.

What You Can Do to Protect Your PDFs: 

Always use an Open Password
This ensures the file cannot be opened at all without authorization, making it much harder to bypass restrictions.

Use Certificate-Based Encryption
This is more secure than password protection and allows you to control access at a deeper level.

Flatten the PDF
Convert the content to images or outlines so it cannot be easily edited or extracted

Use Acrobat's Enhanced Security Settings
To limit exposure, go to Menu > Preferences > Security (Enhanced) and enable Protected View and Enhanced Security.

To learn more, please see this article: https://adobe.ly/4mAeKTx

I hope this helps.

Thanks,

Anand Sri.

[try67]

Many tools can do it. It's a far from secure protection, unfortunately.

As mentioned above, use a File Open password for stronger (although, not perfect) protection.

[MikelKlink]

It can remove everything if it can open the document. So, why can't you make it so it can't remove ANY restrictions! without this it does no good to have print and edit restrictions!!

This has been known for many decades now. 

PDF is a format with a specification that is open to everyone. Thus, as soon as some software (any software, nor only ChatGPT!) can open the PDF for displaying, it can do anything with it without respecting the permissions, including removing the permissions.