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May 16, 2017
Question

How to add attachments to a digitally signed document

  • May 16, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 14586 views

I have a dynamic document which was built in LiveCycle Designer which requires multiple digital signatures and the ability to add attachments. Currently the ability to add attachments only exists when the document has no digital signatures and only with Acrobat Pro. The add attachment feature is grayed out once a digital signature is applied. This document is an enterprise document that is intended to go through a workflow (hence the reason for multiple digital signatures). Additionally the Interactive Objects menu is also grayed out on my form so the ability to add a button is not available (this is grayed out even with no digital signatures). I am open to the idea of adding a button in LiveCycle but I haven't found a JS that has worked yet (this is without me adding the complication of having any digital signatures in the form yet).

Any Ideas??

Adobe products being used;

LiveCycle Designer ES4

Adobe Acrobat Pro

Adobe Acrobat Reader DC

R/

Matt

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1 reply

Mathieu_Fortin
Inspiring
May 16, 2017

Attachments are signed content. Adding/removing an attachment in a signed pdf would invalidate the signature. All attachments need to be added before the first signature.

May 16, 2017

I appreciate the quick response and I am in agreement with you. What I am looking for a workaround, if adding a button in LiveCycle would allow me to add attachments than that would be great. Or, if I could remove some of the security features that normally go with digital signatures than I am ok with that too. 

Mathieu_Fortin
Inspiring
May 17, 2017

It doesnt matter if the attachment is added through a button, an action in a gui, or programmatically. You end up with a change to the signed document that will invalidate (red x) all previous signatures. This is not a feature  you can disable as its essentially just digest/hash comparison.

If you want to work around this, you need to change your workflow. On the top of my head (i dont know if its possible with livecycle) if adding all attachments before signing is not possible, you could for example create a "wrapper" pdf and add, as attachments, both the multi-signed pdf and other attachments. You could then sign this wrapper pdf at the end to preserve integrity of the whole package.