Reader security updates break pdf-to-pdf links on web

Report · Jun 12, 2015

We have a large collection of PDF files served from the web. We rely on a lot of links from one PDF to another. Unhappy clients began calling us to report broken links after the May 12 security updates to Reader 10, 11, DC.

This is what happens:

Open PDF#1, our menu that has a bookmark to open each of our manuals.
Click a bookmark to open PDF#2.
PDF#2 opens. Any links or bookmarks in PDF#2 that should open PDF#3 (or any other PDF file) are broken.

This is not dependent on browser or browser version.

We can recommend that our clients return to pre-May 12 versions of Reader but that is only a stopgap measure, not a real solution. (Reader 9 still works beautifully but security concerns will keep people from going there). I am concentrating on a fix in Reader DC that will let our clients use our PDF files the way they were meant to be used.

Adobe's multi-pronged support approach (forums, forums, forums) keeps me from contacting anyone at Adobe in person. I submitted a bug report, I posted in the Adobe Reader forum. Now I'm looking for a phone number for someone in Reader support. If Adobe broke the links by accident, they need to know that. If Adobe meant to break our links, we need to know that so we can begin the move away from PDF files.

Has anyone else noticed this problem? If you have, please report it. If you are willing to share email addresses or phone numbers that could help me make sure Adobe understands our problem, I would appreciate that information.

I depended heavily on Adobe forums (FM and Acrobat) years ago so I am well acquainted with the excellent support offered by other users. This time, though, I need Adobe's ear.

Report · Jun 12, 2015

This looks to be an Acrobat Reader problem generally, and not a Framemaker problem (or a problem that FM can work around).

I see in the Reader forum that Adobe has published a registry hack for at least one configuration.

My guess is one of:

this was a testing oversight, and will get fixed quickly
there's a fundamental security problem in PDF that can't be fixed without breaking file-to-file hypertext (seems unlikely, but then my understandinf is that MS can't issue some crucial security patches for any OS earlier than Windows XP for this reason - it would break APIs and apps would stop working)

Report · Jun 15, 2015

Thanks, Bob. You are correct, that this is a Reader problem. I was having trouble finding anyone reporting the same thing but figured the FM community would be aware...and also more helpful than the Reader forum. 🙂 No offense to the Reader forum--that forum is not as focused as the FM forum.

After I posted in both the Reader and FM forums, I saw the May 19 post in the Reader forum (Re: Since upgrading to 11.0.11, relative cross document links while viewing PDF in the browser are n...). I also see the registry fix but I'm not sure that's one I'm willing to recommend to clients.