Security and Digital Signatures
Get access to detailed technical information about Acrobat and Reader's security functionality here. The information is intended to help developers, administrators, and end users in enterprise environments. Learn to deploy, configure, and use the Acrobat family of products in digital signatures, encryptions, and other security-related workflows.
Acrobat and Reader also provide a variety of features for integrating 3rd party security products, custom plugins, and customized business processes. These integration points include security handlers for LiveCycle policies and password security, digital ID and certificate, and APIs for digital signatures PKCS#11, MSCAPI, JavaScript, as well as others.
Adminstrator and Technical User Guides
To view a list of security-related documentation, click one of the links below or go to the Security Documentation Library. While these guides may be of interest to developers, they are primarily intended for enterprise users in need of configuring and using clients in an enterprise environment.
| Available guides by version | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Security Administration Guide | N/A
|
Client deployment, configuration, and management | ||
| Document Security User Guide | Choosing and using one of the three default security methods | |||
| Digital Signature User Guide | Authoring signable PDFs, signing, and validating signatures | |||
| Sharing Settings & Data Guide (+FDF) | Importing and exporting security settings and data and using FDF files | |||
| Signature and Security Quick Starts | N/A
|
N/A | One page guides and keys describing security-related features | |
Technical Whitepapers
Security for Flash Player Compatible Content in Acrobat 9 and Adobe Reader 9 (PDF, 139k)
Get an overview of the security model for Flash Player compatible content playing inside Acrobat and Adobe Reader.
Digital Signatures in the PDF Language (PDF, 351k)
Get the description of digital signature features supported by PDF, how digital signatures are represented in a PDF document, and how they solve the need for trusted documents and signatures.
Digital Signatures in Acrobat (PDF, 452k)
Get the description of Acrobat's implementation of PDF language features and how Acrobat validates digital signatures.In addition, get information related to application differences, Reader enabling, and Adobe LiveCycle® dynamic forms.
Guidelines for Developing Cryptographic Service Providers (CSPs) for Acrobat on Windows (PDF, 614k)
Get guidelines, as developers, to develop a Cryptographic Service Provider (CSP) for use with Acrobat and Adobe Reader on the Windows® platform. The CSP makes it possible for MSCAPI-compliant applications to access digital IDs through an API.
