Class PdfSecuritySettings

Enterprise-grade PDF security: pdf.SecuritySettings.MakePdfDocumentReadOnly("owner123") Control passwords, 128-bit encryption, permissions for print/copy/edit. Essential for legal, financial, and government documents. Used via PdfDocument.SecuritySettings property.

Inheritance

System.Object

PdfClientAccessor

PdfSecuritySettings

Namespace: IronPdf.Security

Assembly: IronPdf.dll

Syntax

public class PdfSecuritySettings : PdfClientAccessor

Remarks

IronPDF provides bank-grade security features: - 128-bit AES encryption (industry standard) - User passwords (open/view access) - Owner passwords (permission control) - Granular permissions (print, copy, edit, annotate) - Compatible with Adobe Acrobat security model

using IronPdf;
// Basic password protection
var pdf = PdfDocument.FromFile("sensitive.pdf");
pdf.SecuritySettings.UserPassword = "view123";     // Required to open
pdf.SecuritySettings.OwnerPassword = "admin456";   // Required to change settings
pdf.SaveAs("protected.pdf");
// Make completely read-only (government/legal use)
var contract = PdfDocument.FromFile("contract.pdf");
contract.SecuritySettings.MakePdfDocumentReadOnly("owner-secret");
// Now: No copying, No printing, No editing, No annotations
contract.SaveAs("final-contract.pdf");
// Custom permissions (corporate policy)
var report = PdfDocument.FromFile("quarterly-report.pdf");
report.SecuritySettings.OwnerPassword = "exec2024";
report.SecuritySettings.AllowUserPrinting = PdfPrintSecurity.FullPrintRights;
report.SecuritySettings.AllowUserCopyPasteContent = false;  // Prevent data leaks
report.SecuritySettings.AllowUserEdits = PdfEditSecurity.NoEdit;
report.SecuritySettings.AllowUserAnnotations = true;  // Allow comments
report.SaveAs("q4-report-secure.pdf");

Properties

AllowUserAnnotations

Gets or sets the permissions for users to annotate the PDF document with comments.

If AllowUserAnnotations is set false, the OwnerPassword must be set for the security measure to take effect.

Declaration

public bool AllowUserAnnotations { get; set; }

Property Value

Type	Description
System.Boolean	`true` if users may annotate the PDF document, otherwise `false`.

AllowUserCopyPasteContent

Gets or sets the permissions for users to extract or 'copy & paste' content (text and images) from the PDF document.

If AllowUserCopyPasteContent is set false, the OwnerPassword must also be set for the security measure to take effect.

Declaration

public bool AllowUserCopyPasteContent { get; set; }

Property Value

Type	Description
System.Boolean	`true` if users may 'copy and paste' content out of the PDF otherwise, `false`.

AllowUserCopyPasteContentForAccessibility

Gets or sets the permissions for users to extract or 'copy & paste' content (text and images) from the PDF document for accessibility.

Declaration

public bool AllowUserCopyPasteContentForAccessibility { get; set; }

Property Value

Type	Description
System.Boolean	`true` if users may 'copy and paste' content out of the PDF otherwise, `false`.

AllowUserEdits

Gets or sets the permissions for users edit the PDF document. The features to edit the document depends entirely on the PDF client software used by the end user.

If editing rights are restricted, then the OwnerPassword must be set for the security measure to take effect.

Declaration

public PdfEditSecurity AllowUserEdits { get; set; }

Property Value

Type	Description
PdfEditSecurity	The PdfEditSecurity value for user edit security.

AllowUserFormData

Gets or sets the permissions for users to fill-in (enter data into) forms in the PDF document.

If AllowUserFormData is set false, the OwnerPassword must be set for the security measure to take effect.

Note. If you want to make the form readonly in Adobe Acrobat Reader please call MakePdfDocumentReadOnly(String) method or set AllowUserEdits to NoEdit and set OwnerPassword.

Declaration

public bool AllowUserFormData { get; set; }

Property Value

Type	Description
System.Boolean	`true` if users may annotate the PDF document, otherwise `false`. Setting AllowUserFormData true will also enable annotations.

AllowUserPrinting

Gets or sets the permissions for users to print the PDF document.

If print rights are restricted, then the OwnerPassword must be set for the security measure to take effect.

Declaration

public PdfPrintSecurity AllowUserPrinting { get; set; }

Property Value

Type	Description
PdfPrintSecurity	The PdfPrintSecurity value for user printing.

OwnerPassword

Sets the owner password and enables 128Bit encryption of PDF content. An owner password is one used to enable and disable all other security settings.

OwnerPassword must be set to a non empty string value for AllowUserCopyPasteContent, AllowUserAnnotations, AllowUserFormData,s AllowUserPrinting and AllowUserEdits to be restricted.

Declaration

public string OwnerPassword { get; set; }

Property Value

Type	Description
System.String

UserPassword

Sets the user password and enables 128Bit encryption of PDF content .

A user password is a password that each user must enter to open or print the PDF document.

Declaration

public string UserPassword { get; set; }

Property Value

Type	Description
System.String

Methods

MakePdfDocumentReadOnly(String)

Declaration

public void MakePdfDocumentReadOnly(string OwnerPassword)

Parameters

Type	Name	Description
System.String	OwnerPassword

RemovePasswordsAndEncryption(Boolean)

Removes all user and owner password security for a PDF document. Also disables content encryption.

Content is encrypted at 128 bit. Copy and paste of content is disallowed. Annotations and form editing are disabled.

Remove all digital signatures from the PDF document. (Recommended, since they will become invalidated anyway.)

Declaration

public void RemovePasswordsAndEncryption(bool RemoveSignatures = true)

Parameters

Type	Name	Description
System.Boolean	RemoveSignatures