MacOS – How secure are password protected PDFs that are created with Preview

macospasswordpdfpreview

I use 1Password1 to store not only my own information, but also my sisters home Wi-Fi information.

Since she does not have a 1Password licence, I printed out the information for her to store in a safe place. Now, I was just thinking of using the printing dialog (under "Security Options…") to create a "password protected" PDF.

But what does that actually mean and how secure is it?

  • Does this encrypt the whole PDF?
  • What encryption is used?
  • Is it compatible with Windows and Ubuntu?

There does not2 seem to be a knowledge-base article on support.apple.com. The info dialog in Finder merely says that the PDF is "Password Encrypted".

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Best Answer

The last Time I checked a 128 bit RC4 encryption of the whole document was used. Also, compatability should be vested.

Here's a screenshot of the output of GuaPDF: enter image description here

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