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USING ACROBAT 9 PRO EXTENDED
Security
Last updated
9
/30/2011
Inserting data into PDFs and forms
An alert notifies you when an untrusted source attempts to add data into a PDF
form by using an FDF file, for example. Although this data-injection feature can streamline workflows in your
organization, it can also be used to add malicious data into a PDF.
Silent printing
Silent printing is printing to a file or printer without any confirmation from you. It is a potential
security risk because a malicious file can silently print multiple times to your printer, wasting printer resources. It can
also prevent other documents from printing by keeping the printer busy.
Contact your system administrator to determine when to allow silent printing.
More Help topics
“
Enhanced security
” on page 228
“
Document message bar
” on page 24
“
Play multimedia
” on page 41
“
Multimedia Trust preferences
” on page 42
Enhanced security
PDFs have evolved from static pages to complex documents with features such as interactive forms, multimedia
content, scripting, and other capabilities. These features leave PDFs vulnerable to malicious scripts or actions that can
damage your computer or steal data. Enhanced security allows you to protect your computer against these threats by
blocking actions or selectively permitting them for locations and files that you trust.
When enhanced security is enabled and a PDF tries to complete a restricted action from an untrusted location or file,
a security alert appears. The type of alert depends on the action and your version of Acrobat or Reader. (See “
Security
alerts
” on page 226.)
Important:
Acrobat and Reader 9.3 and 8.2 enable enhanced security by default. Adobe recommends that you enable
enhanced security if it is not already enabled, and that you bypass restrictions only for trusted content.
For a detailed list of restricted actions when enhanced security is enabled, see the enhanced security warnings at
“
Security alerts
” on page 226.
For technical details about enhanced security, written primarily for administrators, see the documents at
www.adobe.com/go/learn_acr_appsecurity_en
.
Enable enhanced security
1
In the Preferences dialog box, select Security (Enhanced) from the Categories on the left.
2
Select the Enable Enhanced Security option.
Note:
Acrobat and Reader 9.3 and 8.2 enable enhanced security by default.
Bypassing enhanced security restrictions
With enhanced security enabled, only the files, folders, and locations that have been trusted are exempt from enhanced
security’s restrictions. You can specify trusted locations and files in several ways, depending on the action the PDF is
attempting to complete.
•
Use the privileged locations feature in the enhanced security dialog box to trust files, folders, and host domains
(root URLs).
•
Configure Internet access using the Trust Manager. (See “
Trust Manager preferences
” on page 229.)