Security & Permissions

The PDFViewer component provides high-level configuration options to manage document permissions. It respects PDF security flags by default (e.g., disabling the print button if printing is disallowed) but gives you control to override these behaviors.

Understanding PDF Security

PDF documents support two concepts that are often confused: encryption and permissions.

Document Encryption (Protects Access)

PDFs can be encrypted using AES-256 or RC4. This is real cryptographic security - without the correct password, the document bytes cannot be decrypted.

• User Password: Required to open and view the document
• Owner Password: Can also open the document and grants full access in compliant viewers

Encryption answers the question: “Who can access this document?”

Permission Flags (Not Security)

PDFs can also contain permission flags indicating allowed actions: printing, copying text, editing, etc.

Here’s why: Once a user has the password and decrypts the document, they have the full unencrypted content in memory. At that point, they can:

• Ignore the permission flags entirely
• Modify or remove the flags
• Save a new PDF without any restrictions

There is no technical way to enforce “you can view this document but not print it.” If someone can see the content, they can screenshot it, print it, or extract it. Permission flags are a polite request to compliant viewers, not a security barrier.

Quick Start

You can configure permissions globally by passing a permissions object to the config prop.

<PDFViewer 
  config={{
    src: '/document.pdf',
    permissions: {
      // Ignore PDF flags entirely
      enforceDocumentPermissions: false,
      
      // Or override specific flags
      overrides: {
        print: false, // Disable printing for everyone
        copyContents: true // Allow copying even if PDF forbids it
      }
    }
  }} 
/>

How It Works

When PDFViewer loads a document, it resolves permissions in the following order:

1. Overrides: Any flags specified in config.permissions.overrides take precedence.
2. Enforcement: If enforceDocumentPermissions is false, the viewer ignores the PDF’s internal flags and assumes “Allow All” for anything not explicitly overridden.
3. PDF Flags: If enforcement is on (default) and no override exists, the viewer uses the settings embedded in the PDF file.

The UI automatically adapts to these effective permissions. For example:

• If print is denied, the Print button in the toolbar becomes disabled or hidden.
• If copyContents is denied, text selection is disabled on the canvas.
• If modifyAnnotations is denied, annotation tools are disabled.

Interactive Example

Switch between the tabs to see how different permission configurations affect the viewer. Observe how the Print button and Text Selection behave in each mode.

• Full Access: Ignores PDF restrictions (enforceDocumentPermissions: false)
• Print Disabled: Printing is blocked, but text selection works
• Read-Only: Printing, copying, and modifications are all blocked

API Reference

PDFViewerConfig.permissions

Supported Permission Names