
= Contents =

  Introduction
  Requirements
  Known bugs and limitations
  Technical support
  Registration
  Copyright and license
  Where to get the latest version


= Introduction =

Advanced PDF Password Recovery Pro (APDFPRP) is a program to decrypt protected Adobe Acrobat PDF files, which have "user" ("open") and/or "owner" ("security, "master") passwords set, and to recover these passwords. Owner-level protection allows to prevent PDF file from editing (changing), printing, selecting text and graphics (and copying them into the Clipboard), or adding/changing annotations and form fields (in any combination); user-level one locks the file so the password is requiored to open/view the file. If only "owner" password is set, decryption is being done instantly; decrypted file can be opened in any PDF viewer (e.g.  Adobe Acrobat Reader) without any restrictions -- i.e. with edit/copy/print/annotate functions enabled. Alternatively, "owner" password can be recovered using brute-force or dictionary attacks; for "user" password, these attacks are required in any case. In addition, files with "user" password can be recovered in a reasonable time using "key search" attack. Please note that some limitations still apply (see help file for more details about Adobe Acrobat encryption levels and complete description/limitations of attacks mentioned above).


= Requirements =

- Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows Server 2003
- about one megabyte of free space on hard disk


= Known bugs and limitations =

The program can process files encrypted in mode 1 with standard encryption handler only. The documents protected with any other encryption handlers (like FileOpen, SASS_INTERNET_STDS from Standards Australia Software Services, or SoftLock's Acrobat Security Plug-Ins) cannot be decrypted.

Please also note that "key attack" is not applicable to PDF 1.4/1.5/1.6 files (Acrobat 5/6/7, respectively) with 128-bit encryption.

The program cannot (yet) work with some files created in Adobe Acrobat 6.0 and 7.0 (PDF 1.5 and 1.6 specification).


= Technical support =

For technical support, please contact us at support@elcomsoft.com.


= Registration =

Unregistered (trial) version decrypts only first 10% pages (but at least one page) of the documents, and replaces all other pages with blank (empty) ones; with a brute-force attack, passwords longer than 4 characters cannot be recovered; some dictionary-attack options are disabled.

After you register (look at "order.txt" for details), we'll send you your personal registration code. To enter it into the program, just press the "Register" button on the main screen ("Options" tab); the program will display the small window dialog asking you to enter the code. If the code is correct, APDFPRP shows the message that it is registered now, and so since than has the full functionality.


= Copyright and license =

See "license.txt" file.


= Where to get the latest version =

The latest version of APDFPRP is always available from our web page at:

http://www.elcomsoft.com/apdfpr.html

Please also have a look at other password recovery products made by our company:

http://www.elcomsoft.com/prs.html

You will find the password recovery software for MS Word/Excel documents (all versions), Access 2/95/97/2000 (including user-level security and owner information), VBA, MS Money, MS Outlook and Outlook Express, MS Internet Explorer, MS Project, MS Backup, MS Mail and Schedule+; ZIP/WinZip, ARJ, RAR/WinRAR and ACE/WinAce archives; Lotus SmartSuite (Organizer, 1-2-3, WordPro, Approach); Symantec ACT!, Corel WordPerfect Office (WordPerfect, Paradox, QuattroPro); Intuit Quicken and QuickBooks; instant messengers (ICQ, MSN Messenger, AIM, Yahoo! Messenger etc); email clients (Eudora, Pegasus etc); Windows 2000/XP/2003 Encrypting File System on NTFS; Windows NT/2000/XP user passwords, Windows PWL/RAS/dial-up/VPN/shares/asterisked passwords. More products will follow.