How to disable embedded Flash content in PDFs opened with Adobe Reader

MrBrian · Mar 7, 2010

Embedded Adobe Flash content within PDFs opened by Adobe Reader 9+ can pose a security risk. For example, see https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=267024. The steps to disable embedded Adobe Flash content are found under "Disable Flash and 3D & Multimedia support in Adobe Reader 9" at http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/259425.

What about Adobe Flash content in PDFs in earlier versions of Adobe Reader? According to the document "Security for Flash Player compatible content in Acrobat 9," available at http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/security.html,

Acrobat 6.0 to Acrobat 8.0 supported Flash Player compatible content in a very limited way as part of the legacy Multimedia annotation. This support was based on the browser plug-in and that has not changed in 9.0. Features introduced in 9.0 use an embedded Flash Player that helps enable a much higher level of security. Hence the security rules described in this document do not apply to the legacy Multimedia annotation.

As soon as a legacy Multimedia annotation is activated, the user is asked for permission to run the multimedia content. They are not asked later when the external URL access is done. All local file system access is blocked.
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Use the settings under 'Multimedia Trust' in Adobe Reader Preferences to change these settings.

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How to disable embedded Flash content in PDFs opened with Adobe Reader

MrBrian Registered Member

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How to disable embedded Flash content in PDFs opened with Adobe Reader

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