Foxit Reader Security

5-Levels of Security to Insure User Safety and Protection

Foxit Reader provides user controlled options for securely working with PDF documents. PDF documents are relatively secure when compared to other file types. However, any file downloaded from the internet may have security vulnerabilities.

Foxit has implemented numerous security features to protect PDF users from malicious PDF documents. The Foxit Reader security options include, Security Warning Dialog, Trust Manager (Safe Mode), Digital Signature Validation, ASLR & DEP support and in extreme situations the ability to Disable JavaScript completely.

Security Warning Dialog

By standard operation default mode, the Foxit Reader will warn users if a PDF document attempts to call or run an external command. The security warning dialog message provides a choice to run or terminate executing any files within a PDF file. To further ensure message credibility, Foxit has implemented a new screening process which protects end users from misleading messages embedded within the parameters of a pop-up dialog box. A pop-up dialog contains an area which is reserved for a message that is generated by the rendered PDF file. Due to Foxit's concern that this message may mislead users to take an unadvisable action, Foxit Reader will no longer display the content of the message and removes any parameters within the pop-up message that can be manipulated by the PDF file.

Trust Manager (Safe Mode)

The Trust Manager allows users to select a safe mode operation. Safe Mode, once selected, prevents suspicious external commands to be executed by Foxit Reader. The Trust Manager feature is easy-to-use and can be selected or deselected within Foxit Reader at the discretion of the user.

Verify the Digital Signature

Foxit Reader now features a PDF digital signature verification technology which uses an enhanced, yet ISO 32000 compliant, verification process that ensures the signature is real and neither the document nor the signature have been compromised. This new verification process provides a secure and reliable platform for exchanging electronics documents without putting the user at risk from falsified documents.

Enhance Security with ASLR & DEP Support

Foxit Reader continues to add features that increase security by making it harder for hackers to compromise a PDF document. The current version of the reader includes Address Space Layout Randomization, ASLR, which uses a random algorithm to determine a memory address used to store key file data. A second security feature is Data Execution Prevention, DEP, which simply prevents executing code from a non-executable memory location. ASLR and DEP combine to highly improve Foxit Reader Security and provide a stable platform for enterprise, business and consumer, Foxit Reader users.

Disable JavaScript

Foxit Reader includes the option for turning off JavaScript entirely. However, disabling JavaScript will limit the interactive functionality of Foxit Reader Tools (for example: form filling).