Collected research

Practical Decryption exFiltration: Breaking PDF Encryption

Jens Müller, Fabian Ising, Vladislav Mladenov, Christian Mainka, Sebastian Schinzel and Jörg Schwenk · ACM

Modified encrypted PDFs exfiltrate plaintext when their recipients decrypt them. Partial encryption permits attacker-controlled forms, links or scripts to reference encrypted objects; unauthenticated CBC and known permission bytes also enable encrypted gadgets. Tests on 27 viewers distinguish interaction requirements and full, partial or single-word leakage.

Record

Researcher

Jens Müller, Fabian Ising, Vladislav Mladenov, Christian Mainka, Sebastian Schinzel and Jörg Schwenk

Published by

ACM

Format

Whitepaper

Topic

Crypto

In the archive

• Collected in the 2019 research round

Tags

• pdf
• crypto
• gadget-chain
• info-leak
• javascript
• measurement-study
• attack-chain
• owasp-a02-2021
• owasp-a08-2021

This page is the archive's own catalogue record. The research is the work of Jens Müller, Fabian Ising, Vladislav Mladenov, Christian Mainka, Sebastian Schinzel and Jörg Schwenk, first published at the original source. Preserved copies are kept so the citation survives its host; this one was last captured on 10 September 2026.