Open fileopen-protected file with Ghostscript

[Alexander Fischer]

Hello,
I have a PDF file which is - I believe - secured with the FileOpen
system (the document was originally purchased from my computer). Is
there a way to open this document with Ghostscript/Ghostview instead of
Acrobat? Since I have full access to the document using Acrobat, I
assume that theoretically it has to be possible that there is something
like a plugin for Ghostview which uses my password/ID/key to make it
readable...

Thank you!
Al

[Ralf Koenig]

I don't know anything about this security handler.

If printing is allowed, print from AR to a Postscript printer into a
file. Then convert Ps->PDF with whatever tool you like, such as the
ps2pdf script around gs.

You will lose navigation stuff such as hyperlinks and bookmarks, though.

Ralf

[Alexander Fischer]

Unfortunately, printing is not allowed. With "full access" I meant that
on my local Acrobat I do have the password (and thus theoretically all
the requirements to fully manipulate the data) to the file.

Any other suggestions?

Thank you,
Al

[Alexander Fischer]

Actually, I was wrong - sorry. Printing is partly greyed out, but
possible nevertheless.

The problem is: if I go the way via PS and PDF, then obviously the
whole text is being stored not as text, but as vector graphics. I.e.,
no searching, no selecting - and a file size which exceeds the original
file size by ~factor 20....

Since the information is available on my computer (even as text), I
figure it must be possible to access it in some way, am I right?

Thanks,
Al

[Ralf Koenig]

Alexander Fischer wrote:
> Actually, I was wrong - sorry. Printing is partly greyed out, but
> possible nevertheless.
>
> The problem is: if I go the way via PS and PDF, then obviously the
> whole text is being stored not as text, but as vector graphics. I.e.,
> no searching, no selecting - and a file size which exceeds the original
> file size by ~factor 20....

So, it's vector outlines in the PS, already?

Normal AR does not do such replacement of text by vector outlines. This
may be a "feature" of the "partly greyed out" printing of the FileOpen
plug-in.

If you're desperate: Use an OCR program, such as Omnipage, with the
final PDF file as input. *Ideally*, in Truepage mode, it will replace
the character outlines by real text, and leave the rest untouched.

> Since the information is available on my computer (even as text), I
> figure it must be possible to access it in some way, am I right?

Well, you have the key, but you don't have any details about the
locking/unlocking mechanisms of FileOpen, so you basically need to
reverse-engineer the interactions between the FileOpen-plugin and AR.
Other people may have dealt with this issue before, maybe you can find
some stuff on bugtraq or some other security-related site. The E****soft
people found some hole in the plug-in signing mechanism, so you could
wirte an additional plug-in to save the decrypted file from inside AR.

I would live with a large file and a clean slate, ;-)
Ralf