No Insecure Plugins
Plugins can put your protected PDF documents at risk – see Adobe PDF Security Plugins & Plug-in Vulnerabilities but they also provide many other problems.
- Plug-ins are known for not being very secure. But don’t just take our word for it. ElcomSoft CEO Vladimir Katalov said “Because of the plug-in architecture of Acrobat and PDF readers, it makes PDF a less-secure platform for DRM”. Elcomsoft circumvented Adobe’s DRM plug-in for their Ebook Reader back in 2001 and this article makes for interesting reading – How AEBPR cracked Adobe’s Acrobat E-Book Reader.
- They require Windows Admin rights to install so offer no installation advantages over EXE files.
- They can conflict with other plugins.
- They can be overruled. Anyone can write a plug-in for Adobe Acrobat Standard or Professional without obtaining an IKLA.
- They often stop working when the host application is updated.