In comp.os.linux.security Patrick :
> "responder" wrote in message
> news:S5qdnVHEN7ZHP6XYnZ2dnUVZ_t-dnZ2d@gwi.net

[Content restored]

>> Practical Onion Hacking pdf
>> http://www.packetstormsecurity.org/0...on_Hacking.pdf
Doesn't work for me at all?

>> [Sorry, it's in pdf and I cannot copy text directly.]


> Why not? Everybody else can "Select Text" in Acrobat Reader and paste into
> any arbitrary application.

Which can be easily disabled while creating a .pdf (iirc).

--
Michael Heiming (X-PGP-Sig > GPG-Key ID: EDD27B94)
mail: echo zvpunry@urvzvat.qr | perl -pe 'y/a-z/n-za-m/'
#bofh excuse 229: wrong polarity of neutron flow

On 2006-10-20, Patrick wrote:
> "responder" wrote in message
> news:S5qdnVHEN7ZHP6XYnZ2dnUVZ_t-dnZ2d@gwi.net
>
>> Excerpt:
>>
>> [Sorry, it's in pdf and I cannot copy text directly.]
>
> Why not? Everybody else can "Select Text" in Acrobat Reader and paste into
> any arbitrary application.
>
Or one could use 'pdftotext' (part of xpdf-utils in debian)

--
Ian Kilgore
echo "pfxz@pfxz.trw" | tr pzfwxt ikagno

On 2006-10-20, Michael Heiming wrote:

> In comp.os.linux.security Patrick :
>> "responder" wrote in message

>>> [Sorry, it's in pdf and I cannot copy text directly.]
>
>> Why not? Everybody else can "Select Text" in Acrobat Reader and paste into
>> any arbitrary application.

> Which can be easily disabled while creating a .pdf (iirc).

And subsequently re-enabled by printing to postscript, cranking it
through ps2ps, and recreating the pdf with ps2pdf. :-)

--

John (john@os2.dhs.org)

John Thompson wrote:

> On 2006-10-20, Michael Heiming wrote:
>
>> In comp.os.linux.security Patrick :
>>> "responder" wrote in message
>
>>>> [Sorry, it's in pdf and I cannot copy text directly.]
>>
>>> Why not? Everybody else can "Select Text" in Acrobat Reader and paste
>>> into any arbitrary application.
>
>> Which can be easily disabled while creating a .pdf (iirc).
>
> And subsequently re-enabled by printing to postscript, cranking it through
> ps2ps, and recreating the pdf with ps2pdf. :-)

I will type this in manually, so beware of typos. From the "Copyright and
disclaimer" section:

The information in this research paper is Copyright 2006 FortConsult A/S.

In case you wish to copy information from this document, please either
copy all of it or refer to this document (preferably by the original
http://www.fortconsult.net/ URL where you found it.)

(ed. note: Obviously that is not where I found it.)

No guarantee is provided for the accuracy or applicability of this
information, or against damage you may cause your systems. Use of or
reliance on this information may cause your computer to explode, your car
to crash, and dog to chew on your new sneakers. [...]

I'm all in favor of being friendly and helpful and all, but admit to
having doubts about the advisability of helping those who don't honor
Copyrights with security issues. (... Or accepting free gifts from them
either.)

Beyond that, I don't use Acrobat Reader. ...Avoiding the monoculture, you
know.

In comp.os.linux.security John Thompson :
> On 2006-10-20, Michael Heiming wrote:

>> In comp.os.linux.security Patrick :
>>> "responder" wrote in message

>>>> [Sorry, it's in pdf and I cannot copy text directly.]

>>> Why not? Everybody else can "Select Text" in Acrobat Reader and paste into
>>> any arbitrary application.

>> Which can be easily disabled while creating a .pdf (iirc).

> And subsequently re-enabled by printing to postscript, cranking it
> through ps2ps, and recreating the pdf with ps2pdf. :-)

Alternatively, you can still hack* though pdftotext to allow it
working, even if the .pdf doesn't...

*Source modifications/recompile needed...

--
Michael Heiming (X-PGP-Sig > GPG-Key ID: EDD27B94)
mail: echo zvpunry@urvzvat.qr | perl -pe 'y/a-z/n-za-m/'
#bofh excuse 310: asynchronous inode failure

John Thompson writes:

> On 2006-10-20, Michael Heiming wrote:
>
> > In comp.os.linux.security Patrick :
> >> "responder" wrote in message
>
> >>> [Sorry, it's in pdf and I cannot copy text directly.]
> >
> >> Why not? Everybody else can "Select Text" in Acrobat Reader and paste into
> >> any arbitrary application.
>
> > Which can be easily disabled while creating a .pdf (iirc).
>
> And subsequently re-enabled by printing to postscript, cranking it
> through ps2ps, and recreating the pdf with ps2pdf. :-)
>
> --
>
> John (john@os2.dhs.org)
What if the PDF were create by one of the new printer/scanners
that will output to a PDF file and email for you?

I think you end up with an image only PDF -- but if you've
got a solution for me...

jmh

On 2006-10-21, responder wrote:

> John Thompson wrote:
>
>> And subsequently re-enabled by printing to postscript, cranking it through
>> ps2ps, and recreating the pdf with ps2pdf. :-)

> I will type this in manually, so beware of typos. From the "Copyright and
> disclaimer" section:
>
> The information in this research paper is Copyright 2006 FortConsult A/S.
>
> In case you wish to copy information from this document, please either
> copy all of it or refer to this document (preferably by the original
> http://www.fortconsult.net/ URL where you found it.)

Sure; I'll freely confess that I didn't even try it with the FortConsult
document; my experience was with removing Acrobat protections from pdf
files so I could use them with xpdf instead of the Adobe bloatware. My
old Thinkpad-240 bogs down to unusability when the newer versions of
acroread are used. In these cases I had no intention of stripping the
protection to violate the copyright restrictions; I simply wanted to be
able to access the documents with a lighter-weight reader than acroread.

--

John (john@os2.dhs.org)

On 2006-10-21, jmh wrote:

> John Thompson writes:
>
>> And subsequently re-enabled by printing to postscript, cranking it
>> through ps2ps, and recreating the pdf with ps2pdf. :-)

> What if the PDF were create by one of the new printer/scanners
> that will output to a PDF file and email for you?
>
> I think you end up with an image only PDF -- but if you've
> got a solution for me...

Yes, you would end up with an image-only pdf, but you could try
converting it to an image type recognized by e.g. "gocr" and feeding it
through.

--

John (john@os2.dhs.org)

John Thompson wrote:
> Sure; I'll freely confess that I didn't even try it with the FortConsult
> document; my experience was with removing Acrobat protections from pdf
> files so I could use them with xpdf instead of the Adobe bloatware. My
> old Thinkpad-240 bogs down to unusability when the newer versions of
> acroread are used. In these cases I had no intention of stripping the
> protection to violate the copyright restrictions; I simply wanted to be
> able to access the documents with a lighter-weight reader than acroread.

Hi John,

You clearly know much more about pdf format and software than I do, and
have offered some interesting suggestions that will doubtlessly be
explored by others. What you have said makes apparent sense, but I'm not
likely to check it myself.

There are (or were) *nix codex's for .wmf that were discontinued from many
distros because of legal issues. I don't view any in this format; if
publishers want me to view their content they will need to make it
available in a non-proprietary, non-licensed format. That is their
choice.

Similarly, I have several viewers for .pdf, and can generate these formats
from different apps. There are obviously differences among these files,
because they do not all default to the same viewer, and they do not all
behave the same when viewed. I'm not disinterested in these differences,
just too preoccupied with other interests. For the moment, if the
publishers made this version available, that is their choice and I have no
interest in hacking it.

When my own interests dictate my own need to defeat anti-copy features in
pdf formats I'm sure I will search up again your comments and all those
others here. Thanks.