Recover PDF Password lets users to recover ‘user’ and ‘owner’ password for removing restrictions on printing, editing or copying the password-restricted PDFs. The key features of this utility includes:

• Uses various methods to recover PDF passwords
• Search by password length
• Search by template
• Exhaustive search
• Supports Unicode password recovery for Acrobat 9.x files
• A progress bar to show the progress of password recovery
• Supports non-English characters in passwords
• Supports Drag and drop PDF files
• Decrypt all Adobe Acrobat PDF files
• View already decrypted PDF files
• Flexible and user-friendly program interface

A single Personal license is priced at USD 39.95 while a single Business license is priced at USD 49.95.

A limited-feature demo version of Recover PDF Password is also available for trial. Read more about Recover PDF Password at http://www.eltima.com/products/pdf-password-recovery/

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Recover PDF Password for Mac and Windows

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The vulnerability is identified as APSA10-05 (CVE-2010-3654) and has been confirmed in

• Flash Player 10.1.85.3 and earlier versions for Windows, Mac, Linux and Solaris
• Flash Player 10.1.95.2 and earlier versions for Android
• authplay.dll component which is included in Reader 9.4 and Acrobat 9.4 and earlier 9.x versions

Adobe has confirmed that “This vulnerability could cause a crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system. There are reports that this vulnerability is being actively exploited in the wild against Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.x.”

Adobe has suggested a temporary fix by deleting, renaming or moving the authplay.dll file but this may cause the application to crash (non-exploitable) or error message when opening a PDF file that contains Flash (SWF) content.

Adobe Systems are expected to release an update for Flash Player by 9th November 2010 and an update for Reader and Acrobat by 15th November 2010.

Read Adobe’s Security bulletin on this vulnerability at http://www.adobe.com/support/security/advisories/apsa10-05.html

The news appeared at http://www.esecurityplanet.com/news/article.php/3910716/Adobe-Warns-of-Another-Critical-PDF-Vulnerability.htm

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Adobe acknowledges another critical PDF Vulnerability

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I compiled the most common responses I received when I posted my experience in installing Adobe Acrobat 9 on a Windows 7 platform. Out of the comments I received, many reported that they had a good start with Adobe Acrobat 9 but with the installation only.

After installing Adobe Acrobat 9, the other users experienced a number of problematic situations within Acrobat itself such as closing instantly, not being able to print, freezing when scanning and so on.

Note: now, obviously the comments  have been made by those who have encountered problems more likely than not, however, they are interesting nonetheless. Take some time and read through these Acrobat 9.0 and Windows  7 comments yourself…

Windows 7 is actually still in its test run phase for many users but it surely promises a lot as it is considered as the worthy successor of Windows XP. It is just depressing that Adobe may not be keeping up with all the functionality problems that users experience when combining it with Windows 7. A good support system or a dependable resource of information both for Windows 7 and Adobe Acrobat users should really be in place for everyone who may still want to make this combination works.

For any comments or reactions, feel free to post. If you want to post questions, try asking your questions at our PDF Question/Answer site at 4x PDF Help site.

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Adobe Acrobat 9 + Windows 7: A Bad Combination?

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Adobe has recently introduced its Adobe Approved Trust List (AATL) to automatically enable trust for certificate issuers that adhere to stringent operational and issuance standards. The AATL’s automatic updates enables users to check the validity of digital certificates and the integrity of digitally signed PDFs.

QuoVadis’ Digital certificates included in AATL and automatically trusted by Adobe products are

1. QuoVadis Advanced+ Certificates, which includes QuoVadis Swiss ElDI-V and GeBüV certificates and QuoVadis Bermuda Accredited certificates
2. QuoVadis Qualified Certificates, which includes QuoVadis Swiss ZertES Qualified certificates, QuoVadis SuisseID certificates and QuoVadis Dutch Qualified certificates
3. QuoVadis PKI Overheid certificates

QuoVadis provides identity services including Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), Digital Certificates, SSL Certificates, Time-stamping and Root Signing for internal PKI.

Read more on products from QuoVadis at http://www.quovadisglobal.bm/

The news appeared at http://www.royalgazette.com/rg/Article/article.jsp?articleId=7da58a730030018&sectionId=65

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QuoVadis Digital Certificates in Adobe Approved Trust List

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Conway’s proof of concept does by by showing two files: 1) an “empty.pdf” file, and 2) an evil “ownit.pdf” which contains the malware. When he opens the “ownit.pdf” file, he then clicks “Open” on the displayed dialog, after which the original “empty.pdf” file now also contain the malware.

You can see the Conway’s video here

Note: two things;  according to Stevens and Conway, this does weakness is based around the PDF specification itself not the Adobe Reader; the attack itself requires the user to click through a dialog — as such, a form of ‘social engineering’ would be required by the attacker, i.e. the message displayed to the user would have to make clicking ‘open’ a reasonable thing to do — certainly something like ‘would you like a worm?’ — wouldn’t be such a note…

An Adobe spokeswoman replied Monday night to both Stevens and Conway’s posts with: “Users can also turn off this functionality in the Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat Preferences by selecting > Edit > Preferences > Categories > Trust Manager > PDF File Attachments and clearing the box ‘Allow opening of non-PDF file attachments with external applications.’”

At the moment, the Foxit Reader does not display any such dialog to the user although the Foxit team say that they are working on this process.

Source of Information [http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-20001792-245.html]

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Watch out for the wriggling PDF worm!

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PDFTiger allows Windows users to create PDF documents from commonly used file formats such as MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, TXT and other printable documents. PDF documents can also be created from images in BMP, JPG, JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIF and TIFF formats. The software also has the capability to combine multiple pictures into a single manageable PDF document. PDFTiger enables users to save PDF files as MS Word documents while retaining the layout, fonts, formatting and tables. PDF documents can also be exported to TXT, HTML, Flash and images.

The software brings all the conversion options into a single interface with provision of buttons to launch quick and easy-to-use wizards. The software also supports batch conversion through use of folders where users can add all the files in a single attempt for conversion.

A free 30-day trial version of PDFTiger 1.0 is available for download from http://www.pdftiger.com

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PDFTiger.com for rapid conversion of MS Office documents and images to PDF

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It also has the capability to forcibly open the file if the open (user) password is not known. Advanced PDF Password Remover 5.0 supports all the version of Adobe Acrobat (including 9.x). A trial version of the tool is available to download from http://www.advancedpdfconverter.com/products/pdfpasswordremover.html

The press release can be read at http://www.prlog.org/10560627-how-to-remove-pdf-document-restrictions.html

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Advanced PDF Password Remover 5.0 removes file security restrictions

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But it’s not the concept of PDF Portfolio’s that troubles them per se, but rather the fact that in certain bleeding-edge PDFs, Adobe include a warning message that tells you to download the latest version of Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader if you want to view the PDF in question. No ifs, buts or maybes — if you want to view this PDF, then you’ll need to use Adobe’s software.

The reason for this, according to Adobe’s Leonard Rosenthol is that:

Apple’s Preview application doesn’t even support the complete PDF 1.4 specification, let alone the current ISO 32000-1 standard. Nor, unfortunately, do most other 3rd party vendors. That is why we (Adobe) are unfortunately forced to put such notices/warnings in PDFs files that use “more advanced” features of PDF so that users get SOME experience rather than blank pages…

His response sounds reasonable on the surface, but it raises a few other important questions.

• these PDFs can’t be opened by any none-Adobe software, it doesn’t matter if the PDF reader supports the relevant advanced PDF feature or not. Why doesn’t Adobe recommend other 3rd party software along side their own?
• should Adobe be encouraging the use of advanced PDF features, for widely distributed PDFs, before these advanced features have been implemented by the majority of other PDF software vendors?
• a document that can only be opened by Adobe software, isn’t really portable, is it?
• are PDFs simply becoming too complex? Perhaps there is a reason why the majority of PDF software vendors do not support certain advanced PDF features.

These questions will likely be quickly dismissed by Adobe, but there’s little doubt in my mind that a philosophical discussion about the future of PDF needs to take place. It seems that Adobe, and the ISO committee responsible for the next PDF specification update, are trying to make PDFs bend in a way that they were never originally designed to bend, and that without careful consideration, the Portable Document Format could lose its way.

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Are PDF Portfolio’s A Bad Idea?

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A limited number of users also received a beta-updater which Adobe says is going to assist in ensuring that security updates were efficient and accessible.

Adobe also launched the Reader/Acrobat JavaScript Blacklist Framework which allows users to prevent certain JavaScript function calls — this will allow IT decision makers to make these high-level decisions.

Gone are the days where a PDF was as safe as a printed page…

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A mammoth patch for Reader (and family)

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Her update is available from the VRT site… of course, applying a patch from a person/software company you don’t know appears to me — to be (potentially) more of a risk than the exploit itself, I wouldn’t do it.

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Researcher builds home-brewed security patch for Adobe Reader

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Some of the available templates for PDFplannerPRO are Weekly Plan, Weekly Schedule, Time Organizer, Task Organizer, Daily To-Do, Daily Schedule, Expenses, Daily Diary, Project Plan, Weekly Menu and a Note Pad.

Some other features include:

• Customize with your own logo or image
• Input your data and save or print
• Print the complete planner or specific pages
• Schedule has easy date pull down for easy calendar reference
• PDF format allows for easy sharing and opening

Sine PDFplannerPRO comes as a PDF document, the templates can be used on any platform where PDFs are supported. However, for optimum performance and full use of all functions, Worldlabel.com recommends you use PDFplannerPro with version 9 of Adobe Reader.

Visit the Worldlabel.com blog to learn more about the PDFplannerPRO and download yours.

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Free PDFplannerPRO Organizer released by Worldlabel.com

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Editors note: Yet another valuable contribution by Thom Parker, CEO of

By Thom Parker, www.pdfscripting.com

For Acrobat/PDF forms, Don’t miss the Live Sample at end of the article.

One of the biggest issues that PDF newcomers face is understanding the relationship between Acrobat, PDF, and scripts. It’s not just you, this really is a confusing issue. It turns out that scripting is unbelievably useful for all kinds of stuff. Since its introduction in Acrobat 3, Adobe has continued to find new ways to use scripts in the Acrobat/PDF environment, stuffing them into the most unlikely places.

Copying functionality from a sample PDF to your own document almost always means finding scripts on the sample. But for 99% of PDF functionality you don’t need to be an expert to do this. Really, there are only a few key ideas that are necessary.

PDF Scripting Locations

First, JavaScript (Acrobat’s scripting language) is event driven. All scripts are run as a direct result of some action, such as the user clicking on a button or entering data into a field. Second, in the scripting world, a PDF is viewed as a hierarchy, or tree of objects. There is an object for the whole document. Inside the document object, there is an object for each form field, each bookmark, each annotation, each multimedia display, etc. So to put this all together, in a PDF a script is associated with an action on an object. For example, if you enter data into a form field and then click or tab out of the field, you might get popup message that says the data is invalid and you need to re-enter it. This is the result of a “Validation” event script on that field.

So now we know how scripts are associated with things on the PDF, but how do we access those scripts?

Accessing Scripts

Select Object Tool

The sample document on the next page is a live PDF form, with lots of scripts. There are Note annotations explaining how to find those scripts and some alternatives on where a script that performs a particular action may be located.
 
To help you find scripts associated with a form field you’ll need to use the “Select Object.” This tool is activated from the Advanced Editing Toolbar. This is the arrow button at the far left on the toolbar. Activating it puts Acrobat into a kind of edit mode. All the form fields are outlined and the field names are displayed. Right click on any form field and from the popup menu select “Properties.”

The properties dialog has several tabs across the top. Some of these are for accessing scripts associated with events on the form field. The “Actions” tab is for mouse and focus events, the validate tab is for the validation script, the calculate tab is for a calculation script, etc. Not all fields have all of these tabs. It depends on the field type.

You’ll find that the properties dialogs for other scripting locations are similar.

You can download a complete live sample, including this article along with a JavaScript enabled PDF file at, “Finding Scripts on a PDF page” (right-cick and Save As to download to your computer).

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How to Find Scripts in a PDF

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A few days ago I tested Adobe Reader 9 on Windows 7 and didn’t discover any major issues. Adobe Reader worked correctly despite the fact that Windows 7 is not yet a supported platform. Today I thought I’d try the same with Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro.

The good news is that I was able to install Acrobat 9 Pro on Windows 7 without experiencing any issues. Rudimentary testing of some of the basic functionality hasn’t revealed any obvious issues. I can view PDFs, print PDF, extract pages, add bookmarks, reduce file size, etc. I’m sure that there are bugs hidden away somewhere, but on the surface it looks like you could get away with running Acrobat 9 on the Windows 7 beta.

Has anyone else tried testing this? Any questions to ask or different experiences to report?

UPDATE: Karl has tried rechecking browser viewing using the latest Adobe Reader 9.1 and the new Windows 7 Ultimate (version 6, build 7100)  – still no luck. We’ll try Adobe Acrobat shortly, but I’ll certainly be surprised if there’s any change…

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Adobe Acrobat 9 + Windows 7: We Have Lift-Off!

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Installing software on an unsupported operating system isn’t usually a good idea. In fact, it is quite often fraught with risk, as a lot of people found in 2006 when they tried to install software on Windows Vista that was originally been built for Windows XP and hadn’t been updated yet. Luckily — so far — it seems like it is going to be a far smoother transition from Windows Vista to Windows 7. Which brings me to the topic of this post.

I have had Adobe Reader 9 installed on Windows 7 for the past few days and it appears to work A-OK. No crushes or obvious issues so far, although that’s not a guarantee that there isn’t problems — just that I haven’t discovered them yet. Experiment at your own risk.

A couple of screen shots:

Next stop, Acrobat 9 Pro on Windows 7…

UPDATE: Karl has tried recheck browser viewing using the latest Adobe Reader 9.1 and the new Windows 7 Ultimate (version 6, build 7100)  – still no luck. Any problems on your end?

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Adobe Reader 9 + Windows 7: We Have Lift-Off!

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First off, what is acrobat.9-download.com? Well, I’m not precisely sure what their exact game it is, but whatever it is, it looks mighty fraudulent. Visit their website and they try to give you the impression that you can download Adobe Acrobat 9 – but truth is you can’t, since it’s a scam site. If the domain name doesn’t set off the alarm bells in your brain then perhaps the file size – which they list as a  minuscule 22.4 MB, but in reality the Acrobat 9 installer for Windows from Adobe.com is a whopping 330~ MB – will do it. Or perhaps the fact that under the key features they list ‘Official 8.1 version’, but hey, wait a minute, I thought I was downloading Acrobat 9? Yes sir indeed, it’s a spam/scam site.

So how do Microsoft, Google and Yahoo explain these search result pages then?

It’s expected that a certain amount of spam will make its way into search results, but this website has been live and in search results since mid-2008, and if you believe the traffic estimates that Quantcast display, then it is receiving 119,389 visits per month – which isn’t exactly peanuts.

Microsoft, Google and Yahoo need to do some tweaking.

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Acrobat.9-download.com – Its Spam, So Why Does It Rank So High In Google, Yahoo and Live Search?

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