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eye-bean-around ago

Can pdf be archived or similar?

yob ago

great question! great solution

A Classic PDF can be printed in a public domain "GhostScript" Postscript renderer, enhanced for page break control. This stream meant to be sent to a PostScript capable printer can be considered EXTREMELY SAFE.

Think of it as PRINTING A PDF to a new SAVED PDF.

The problem? Weird obfuscation for line speed in Apple's operating system to use a large token database lookup table sent with the document to APPLE postscript devices.

Another problem... wierd DRM control that does no actual DRM other than DRM authentication itself, forcing some documents to be very nonstandard PDF. Ghostscript DOES support PDF passwords (used on self published ebooks).

How to Use Ghostscript

https://www.ghostscript.com/doc/current/Use.htm

Using Ghostscript with PDF files :

https://www.ghostscript.com/doc/current/Use.htm#PDF

Ghostscript has been around since 1986 as far as I recall. Now it is used by the security paranoid to "scrub" pdfs for use on their other devices.

You can even use it to actually render into PNG images, but that crap cannot be text searched.

pitenius ago

I tried to report this to GLP. Banned. Thanks, OP.

yob ago

Banned?

search for "GLP is a Tavistock honeypot" on internet. Or read sites discussing "Conspirators' Hierachy: The Story of The Committee of 300". Or parts of https://educate-yourself.org/nwo/nwotavistockbestkeptsecret.shtml

You can easily be banned on GLP ( https://www.godlikeproductions.com/ ) If you get too close to outing any Glow In the Dark methodologies.

Glow in the Dark : https://hooktube.com/watch?v=AbG6u86t4bA

pitenius ago

I know it's easy to get banned there. I'm not sure what the Tavistock connexion is to GLP. Full disclosure: I've spoken there a handful of times. The whole thing was creepy and compartmentalized. In better days... Now... I'm rather isolated and working for a religious cult.

I'll keep an eye out for you. You are a good one.

prairie ago

Couldn't there be GS exploits as well? Seems the safest approach is to use a pdf-to-png website.

yob ago

You are correct and bring up good points. Malformed embedded fonts, or png, in a PDF could be engineered to silently exploit common pre-compiled GhostScript on a specific OS such as windows, and still escape out of Ghostscript, and using other zero-day exploits leveraged to then install payload deep into an OS. The solution is to alter your ghostscript and compile non optimized, but the weakness could still be confined to the embedded fonts, or png library, and those too would need special care, plus the defect might survive recompiling.

Running ghostscript to create postscript (.ps) files inside a VM, and concatenating back to a ultra clean PDF file, and turning embedded fonts into system standard postscript default fonts, and re-rezzing PNG and JPEG to similar resolution replacements, would STERILIZE the PDF enough that you coiuld add it to your tech library, or distribute the file to your engineering team safely.

It would be semi simple to write a batch file to do all that and even shove it in and out of a VM.

The problem is that every VM ever written has been exploited and excaped out of, infecting the host os. Once main vector is by glitching the video driver seen by the VM.

I talk too much.