There's org.apache.pdfbox.Encrypt which is a standalone tool. It can protect PDFs, encrypt them, or both.
If you want to confirm that protection and encryption are different, take a file and save one as protected and the other as encrypted, then open them both in a text editor to compare. --Adam On Thu, Aug 25, 2011 at 8:28 PM, Ken Bowen <[email protected]> wrote: > Adam...below > > On Aug 25, 2011, at 7:46 PM, Adam Nichols wrote: > >> AccessPermission can be used without encrypting the PDF. That's why I >> said it is not related to encryption. > > I would be very interested in knowing how you do that. Searching the PDFBox > 1.4.0 tree, I can only find uses of AccessPermission in conjunction with > encryption. > > --Ken > > >> >> However, if you are encrypting something, AccessPermission will be >> used. So I'd still say that AccessPermission is not related to >> encryption. If you had to encrypt the file in order to use >> AccessPermission, then I would agree that it is related to encryption. >> >> On Thu, Aug 25, 2011 at 6:02 PM, Ken Bowen <[email protected]> wrote: >>> Hello Adam, >>> >>> Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, we're not interested in encrypting >>> the form; only in preventing >>> further changes beyond a nominal "finished" point. I was only hoping for a >>> "global" way of doing that. >>> >>> I think you may have made an error when you said >>> >>>> Now, to answer your question, the AccessPermission class is not related >>>> to encryption, >>> >>> Since org.apache.pdfbox.pdmodel.encryption.AccessPermission is part of the >>> encryption package, >>> and since it also used as a argument to the StandardProtectionPolicy and >>> PublicKeyRecipient >>> constructors, it is clearly "related" to encryption. >>> >>> Regards, >>> Ken >>> >>> On Aug 25, 2011, at 12:21 AM, Adam Nichols wrote: >>> >>>> Hello. >>>> >>>> First, let me explain what the options are in terms of protecting a PDF. >>>> There are three different types: >>>> 1. No protection. There's no encryption, no passwords, and anyone with >>>> the right software can read, modify, extract, print and whatever else >>>> they desire. >>>> 2. PDFs with an owner password. These can be opened and read by anyone, >>>> however there are some flags which are set which say "please don't edit >>>> this", "please don't print", and so forth. From a technical standpoint, >>>> there's nothing stopping anyone from doing these prohibited actions, but >>>> most software will respect these flags and only allow you to preform >>>> prohibited actions if you enter the correct owner password. >>>> 3. Then there are PDFs with a user password. These can not be opened, >>>> read, or processed in any way without the user password. There is >>>> encryption (RC4 or AES) which stops anyone from bypassing this, no >>>> matter what software they use. Once the correct password is entered, >>>> the file is decrypted and it treated like #1 or #2. >>>> >>>> Now, to answer your question, the AccessPermission class is not related >>>> to encryption, however it is related to the owner password. You will >>>> not need to enter a password to open protected files (as long as there's >>>> no user password); you will only need the password to edit them. Just >>>> keep in mind that it's only going to stop people who didn't REALLY want >>>> to edit it. >>>> >>>> There's no way to use strong encryption to enforce the editability of >>>> the file. As long as the program can process the file enough to know >>>> what to render, then it has everything it needs to write out a copy and >>>> modify the copy. >>>> >>>> Hope this helps you understand how PDFs work, and how the class works. >>>> >>>> --Adam >>>> >>>> On 08/24/2011 08:19 PM, Ken Bowen wrote: >>>>> Hi Everyone, >>>>> >>>>> We have routines which create and fill out pdf forms using PDFBox. >>>>> After creating and filling the fields, we need to make all of them >>>>> read-only. >>>>> Is there a global way to do this with PDFBox for a form? >>>>> Or do I need to go through and apply PDField.setReadonly(true) to each >>>>> field? >>>>> >>>>> I've observed that org.apache.pdfbox.pdmodel.encryption.AccessPermission >>>>> has a bit for setting fields read-only, but it seems this class is only >>>>> related to encyrpted PDFs -- is this true? >>>>> >>>>> Thanks in advance, >>>>> -- Ken >>>>> >>> >>> > >
