Unlock secure PDF Documents?!..

[LERsince1991]

Would anyone like to help me find a way to unlock some secure password protected pdf documents.. they are some maths past papers I need to do, all I want to do is add sticky notes to the questions.

Possible to do in cs4/adobe acrobat pro?

Luke.

it says the encryption is 128-bit RC4

[design-is]

I'm guessing you don't have the passwords?

[LERsince1991]

lol, nope... AQA have the passwords ^^

It would just make it easier to revise some stuff if I had sticky notes in places

[MacDawg]

You can try this (http://pdfkey.com/)

People are hesitant to help because they are passworded for a reason
Circumventing that password... well... you know

But software like this is just a Google away

Woof, Woof - Dawg http://homepage.mac.com/k.j.vinson/pawprint.gif

[LERsince1991]

that app worked but only does one page...

I think I'll just spend this time writing on paper instead of the sticky notes idea ;)

It's a bit of a shady area anyway

Thanks anyway :)

[design-is]

If you can place them into InDesign (depending on the security settings), you could make notes in there... But it kinda takes away the convenience factor.

[Infinitygraphix]

I don't have a protected PDF in hand, but here is what I found last time I had one...

Open it in Preview... and try a « save as ».

When a PDF is protected, you can't « copy » text form it.. However, from Preview, you CAN... so maybe « save as » from Preview would work.

[hodgeheg]

A program called AEBPR (Advanced eBook Processor) may help. If you google AEBPR you will find it.

I don't know whether it will handle that kind of encryption (I suspect not) but many PDFs it does handle - I use it for similar purposes myself if I want to annotate or edit PDFs.

It's a Windows program, but it works perfectly under WINE and/or Crossover on OS X 10.5 in my experience. Once WINE or Crossover is installed, you simply run the installer, then run the application, which will launch in a demo mode. Then close it, and run Regedit (which WINE includes a version of) and follow the instructions in the archive on how to add the registration key to the registry. Running the program will have added the appropriate key, you just need to put the registration code in a STRING value. It's all in the instructions and takes a minute or so - much easier than it sounds.

Hopefully I'm OK posting this (if not, please remove it - nothing inappropriate intended). It is essentially abandonware - it was released into the wild to get round an Adobe lawsuit against the programmer and also in the hope of getting donations for his defence, Dmitry Skylarov that was big news a few years back. Adobe lost, but the software is no longer for sale and is all over the place on the net quite openly - it's just 'fair use' stuff.

Other than that, something like GuaPDF which is more modern and actually does password cracking rather than simply going round the pathetic security that PDF used to use, so should work on some newer encryption, but takes time. There are probably endless other options out there - google PDF Decryption Mac or something.


The other thing you could do, is if the encryption settings allow for printing, you could just print them to a PDF creation program on a computer. I'm not sure what combination of viewer and creation you would need though - acrobat and acrobat reader won't do what you need, on Mac anyway, as far as I know. Preview.app might.

There's another PDF annotation program called PDFXChange Viewer - again it's a windows program, but it has a portable version which is free and works with WINE and Crossover nicely. It may be more flexible in terms of what it will allow you to print, but I have no way to test it right now. Failing that, some linux viewers may ignore restrictions. Like someone said, Preview used to, but I don't *think* it does any more. I don't have a mac any more to test on, having given up on my macbook air after some hideous service from an Apple Store.

Final possibility (only does one page at a time, but you can specify the page) - Inkscape is a free graphics program capable of editing PDFs. I have NO idea what happens with encrypted ones though, and it will depend not only on the encryption used but also the actual permissions they've set.

[rendezvouscp]

As mentioned by hodgeheg, GuaPDF should help. They should have a free trial that may be exactly what you need.

[RickDeckard]

ColorSync utility is all you need (at least it worked for me with some locked pdfs), and you already have it on your mac. Open ColorSync, go to File Open, and open your pdf. Then go to File Export, choose PDF, and re-save it as a PDF with no password protection. It worked like a champ for me. Now I only tried this with single page pdfs, so I don't know how it will handle multiple pages.

[brucebrendon]

I don't have a protected PDF in hand, but here is what I found last time I had one...

Open it in Preview... and try a « save as ».

When a PDF is protected, you can't « copy » text form it.. However, from Preview, you CAN... so maybe « save as » from Preview would work.

cheers this worked for me, i can now highlight a re-saved version in Preview

[Vicbowling]

There are good pdf tools that can do that on Windows computers but unfortunately, I can't think of the name of one at the moment. I wouldn't know what to use to do that on my Mac, but I think the "save as" method should work if you have Adobe Professional installed.

[zhuismile88]

PDF Password Recovery 5.0 ,it works well and easy to use.It helps to decrypt protected Adobe Acrobat PDF files.

Hope it help you,you can google it for more imformation.:)

[EarthRaid]

Colorsync won't allow me to export. It shows a lock in the upper corner. They must have figured that one out : P

Any other tricks out there?

[rogert]

Just go to this to this site http://www.pdfunlock.com/ then to the browse and put the file in and click on unlock and it works great good luck

[freehouse]

@Rogert
Man thank you so much, that website works great.

[spacecadet1968]

@Rogert
awesome, easy to use site -- worked great. Thank You!

[angryshortguy]

pdfunlock.com wanted $3.99 per file to unlock.
anything out there for free?

[Dbiel]

You may not know that some pdf to word converter is able to remove security of PDF while converting. There must be free pdf unlocked there,

[QuarterSwede]

I'm looking for the same thing. I will mention that there is a difference between PDFs that are locked with a password and ones that are encrypted (you have to put a password in before it can be viewed).

If the PDF is just locked then there are a ton of free tools to unlock them (it's just a lock flag in the file) some of which have been mentioned.

If the PDF is encrypted AND you have the password then PDFKey Pro (http://pdfkey.com/) is the only solution I know of that actually works. It is shareware but it only does 1 page if you haven't purchased it.

If anyone knows of a free solution for encrypted PDFs when the user has the password I'd love to know it.

(For me, I have a church directory that is encrypted and I want to strip the password protection so I can view it on my iPhone without having to put a password in every time).

[DesignerOnMac]

I'm looking for the same thing. I will mention that there is a difference between PDFs that are locked with a password and ones that are encrypted (you have to put a password in before it can be viewed).

If the PDF is just locked then there are a ton of free tools to unlock them (it's just a lock flag in the file) some of which have been mentioned.

If the PDF is encrypted AND you have the password then PDFKey Pro (http://pdfkey.com/) is the only solution I know of that actually works. It is shareware but it only does 1 page if you haven't purchased it.

If anyone knows of a free solution for encrypted PDFs when the user has the password I'd love to know it.

(For me, I have a church directory that is encrypted and I want to strip the password protection so I can view it on my iPhone without having to put a password in every time).


pdfkeypro works great but as mentioned will only do one page for the free version. If your needing to use password protected PDFs all the time spend the $24.99 for the full version. A small price to pay if you need this all the time.

I had security password credit card statements which for some reason I could not print. None of the suggestions offered helped. The credit card company, of course, would not give me the password. WHen I purchased pdfkey pro, the credit card company credited my account....so a win win for me!

[Apple Key]

http://www.freemypdf.com/

[QuarterSwede]

pdfkeypro works great but as mentioned will only do one page for the free version. If your needing to use password protected PDFs all the time spend the $24.99 for the full version. A small price to pay if you need this all the time.

I had security password credit card statements which for some reason I could not print. None of the suggestions offered helped. The credit card company, of course, would not give me the password. WHen I purchased pdfkey pro, the credit card company credited my account....so a win win for me!
If I have the password (which I do) would I be able to unlock it and save it with the app it was created with (in this case Adobe Acrobat Pro)? Would Acrobat or Reader work?

So far, I've only needed to unlock this particular PDF so spending $24.99 on it isn't worth it for me. As a workaround I've just appended the password to the end of the filename.

[mpeterson78]

http://www.freemypdf.com/

PERFECT! Couldn't be easier :)

[Debbi.Marshal]

The one utility i have been using to recover my PDF files from printing restriction is none other then Estelar PDF Security Removal Tool (http://www.pdfunlockers.com/) it works link magic for me all I need to do import my pdf file and then hit unlock pdf button and my work is done, So I would recommend giving a free trail to this as this tool has saved me reworking on long pdf files. here is the homepage for this app -http://www.unlockapdf.com/

[bailabaila]

you are authorized to check a bunch of critical PDF files, which were created and encrypted by a former department manager. You need to open these PDF files and print them. Or this job will take you a month or longer.
What's more, i share you a article about How to remove PDF password and restriction (http://www.softwarebbs.com/wiki/How_to_remove_PDF_password_and_restriction),which has made the whole process easy.
It saved me lots of time on this. I just shared the guide with you.
Hope it can do you a bit favor.

[umbertovillaniu]

use ghostscript, it's free and really easy to use:

gs -sOutputFile=nopassworded.pdf -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dNOPAUSE -dbatch -q passworded.pdf

Where passworded.pdf is the file with the password and nopassworded.pdf is the new one with no password.

[blastair]

Thanks to whoever suggested ColorSync. I simply opened the protected PDF in that app, then selected Print-->Save as PDF. Quick and easy, without having to download any additional software. Sweet!