Most people are of the opinion that PDF password protection helps to keep their PDF data secure and safe. However, this is not entirely true. Although passwords have been the most common form of security by which users prove their identity to a PDF file, it has also been the most vulnerable. Experts recommend that PDF password protection should not be widely used, especially to safeguard confidential information.
Since protecting PDF files with passwords is not much better than not doing so, why is PDF password protection so widely used? One of the main reasons why password-based authentication of PDF files has become so common is not because of the security that it offers but because of the ease of use, low cost, simplicity and practicality. Almost every PDF creation application has PDF password protection functionality built-in, and that provides a quick and easy security option for users.
So how secure are password protected PDFs?
There are a number of aspects that determine how safe such “PDF password protected” files really are.
- Most PDF passwords used are weak, and once one person knows the password to open the document they can share it with others. The document restrictions can then be easily removed. Studies reveal that users often make a note of their passwords and place them in visible locations while some others build extremely weak passwords based on simple dictionary words or personal data, which can be easily deduced by people who know enough about them. A weak password is the weakest link in a password based PDF security system.
- Protecting PDF documents with the help of passwords has been easily exploited by hackers because most users are ignorant of the kind of passwords that they should use to secure PDF documents. A majority of users secure their PDF documents with short and easy to crack passwords, since it is easier to remember shorter words rather than long-drawn, complex and difficult-to-remember characters. Using short passwords was considered to be an important business etiquette (ease of use), simply because doing so allowed the recipient to easily open the document, rather than concentrating on a realistically secure password as a defence mechanism. It is also widely acknowledged that most users reuse old passwords.
- The fact that confidential data in a PDF document hinges on the secrecy of a single password, is in itself a dangerous notion. A PDF file that is dependent on password-based authentication relies on a single word for security; this in itself is a significant vulnerability. If an authorized user is given the password to open the PDF document then there is nothing preventing him/her from sharing the password with others – so security here is really a matter of trust. If an unauthorised user gains knowledge of the password or uses password cracking tools to break the PDF password security, they can gain easy access to the PDF file contents. An attacker who gains knowledge of the password can completely compromise the security of the PDF file, removing the security and making it available to others without the need to enter a password (or the password could just as easily be published along with the file).
- And then of course there is the permissions password that controls what users can do with a PDF that they have opened. Even if you use a strong password to restrict usage, it is completely useless. Not only will freely available password recovery tools remove it in seconds due to insecure (and well published) security mechanisms in the PDF security handler, but a large number of open source PDF readers routinely ignore the permission protections and permit the use to freely print or make a copy of the content present in the document, as if the document was not protected by passwords, in the first place.
PDF password protection is therefore not a secure form of protection for sensitive information that must be tightly controlled.
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