How to lock a PDF with a password using Adobe Acrobatįollow these steps to lock a PDF from opening or editing with the most common PDF software, Adobe Acrobat DC Pro. If you must lock a PDF with a password, here we cover how to lock a PDF from editing using Adobe Acrobat and SmallPDF (online PDF locking software). They should only be used to lock non-sensitive documents that won’t be leaving your local PC. Ideally, they shouldn’t be used in a business environment at all.

As soon as you share the password to open the PDF, it becomes trivial to removeĮssentially, PDF passwords only offer the appearance of protection.

You have no way of tracking who has access to the password.

Secure passwords are hard to remember, so users tend to save them to plain text files.

You need to have a secure way to distribute them.

16-character ASCII passwords can be brute-forced in an hour.

PDF password removal tools can remove Adobe PDF password restrictions in seconds.

Any user that receives the password can share it with someone else.

However, Adobe Acrobat and other password-based systems are inherently flawed:

There are dozens of freely available tools that will let you lock a PDF with a password, but the most common is Adobe Acrobat. How to lock a PDF with a password (insecure) Here we cover how to lock PDF files and make them read only so they cannot be edited, copied, or printed, and how to use PDF DRM to securely lock PDF files from opening and restrict how they can be used. Among the least secure is the practice of locking a PDF with a password.

The truth is that there are several straightforward ways to lock a PDF, but they’re not all equal or secure. In all cases, it’s vital only authorised parties can open and interact securely with the content. Perhaps you have some meeting notes you need to share with an outside partner, a contract draft, confidential or sensitive documents, or a yet-to-be-published ebook. Regardless of whether you’re a large enterprise or a small business, the time will come when you need to know how to lock a PDF from editing or viewing.

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