How to: Protect a PDF Document with a Password

• Sep 19, 2023
• 2 minutes to read

Important

You need a license for the DevExpress Office File API Subscription or DevExpress Universal Subscription to use these examples in production code.

This example shows how a PDF document can be protected using both the owner and user passwords.

Refer to the following topic fro more information: Document Protection

View Example

Program.cs

using DevExpress.Pdf;

namespace PDFPasswordProtection
{
  class Program
  {
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {

      using (PdfDocumentProcessor pdfDocumentProcessor = new PdfDocumentProcessor()) {

        // Load a PDF document.
        pdfDocumentProcessor.LoadDocument("..\\..\\Demo.pdf");

        // Specify printing, data extraction, modification, and interactivity permissions. 
        PdfEncryptionOptions encryptionOptions = new PdfEncryptionOptions();
        encryptionOptions.PrintingPermissions = PdfDocumentPrintingPermissions.Allowed;
        encryptionOptions.DataExtractionPermissions = PdfDocumentDataExtractionPermissions.NotAllowed;
        encryptionOptions.ModificationPermissions = PdfDocumentModificationPermissions.DocumentAssembling;
        encryptionOptions.InteractivityPermissions = PdfDocumentInteractivityPermissions.Allowed;

        // Specify the owner and user passwords for the document.  
        encryptionOptions.OwnerPasswordString = "OwnerPassword";
        encryptionOptions.UserPasswordString = "UserPassword";

        // Specify the 256-bit AES encryption algorithm.
         encryptionOptions.Algorithm = PdfEncryptionAlgorithm.AES256;

        // Save the protected document with encryption settings.  
        pdfDocumentProcessor.SaveDocument("..\\..\\ProtectedDocument.pdf", new PdfSaveOptions() { EncryptionOptions = encryptionOptions });
        }
    }
  }
}

Program.vb

Imports DevExpress.Pdf

Namespace PDFPasswordProtection
    Friend Class Program
        Shared Sub Main(ByVal args() As String)

        Using pdfDocumentProcessor As New PdfDocumentProcessor()

            ' Load a PDF document.
            pdfDocumentProcessor.LoadDocument("..\..\Demo.pdf")

            ' Specify printing, data extraction, modification, and interactivity permissions. 
            Dim encryptionOptions As New PdfEncryptionOptions()
            encryptionOptions.PrintingPermissions = PdfDocumentPrintingPermissions.Allowed
            encryptionOptions.DataExtractionPermissions = PdfDocumentDataExtractionPermissions.NotAllowed
            encryptionOptions.ModificationPermissions = PdfDocumentModificationPermissions.DocumentAssembling
            encryptionOptions.InteractivityPermissions = PdfDocumentInteractivityPermissions.Allowed

            ' Specify the owner and user passwords for the document.  
            encryptionOptions.OwnerPasswordString = "OwnerPassword"
            encryptionOptions.UserPasswordString = "UserPassword"

            ' Specify the 256-bit AES encryption algorithm.
            encryptionOptions.Algorithm = PdfEncryptionAlgorithm.AES256

            ' Save the protected document with encryption settings.  
            pdfDocumentProcessor.SaveDocument("..\..\ProtectedDocument.pdf", New PdfSaveOptions() With {.EncryptionOptions = encryptionOptions})
        End Using
        End Sub
    End Class
End Namespace