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Protected PDFs of completed documents
M
Written by Marya Maksimchuk
Updated over a week ago

All PDF copies of signed and completed PandaDoc documents are protected. This is an additional level of security that verifies PDF files signed in PandaDoc and scans for forgery and/or changes made to documents after they’ve been signed.

PandaDoc prioritizes document security through its partnership with Entrust, a certified provider of digital security solutions. Entrust utilizes trusted certificates to generate identity-verified and secure digital signatures on electronic documents, ensuring the validity and reliability of signed documents.

How to find the Entrust trust anchor certificate on a signed document?

  1. Open the document with an Adobe Acrobat PDF reader

  2. Click on Signature Panel

  3. Under Signature Details select Certificate Details

  4. Certificate details will be opened in a pop-up window.

Additionally, PandaDoc follows a protocol called PKI which requires using two keys – a private and a public key which are securely stored in a hardware security module (HSM).

When a PandaDoc document is signed, completed, and downloaded, an algorithm is triggered, creating a hash value based on the PDF content which encrypts it using the PandaDoc private key. The encrypted hash value is then embedded in the PDF, identifying the document as having been signed through PandaDoc.

How does it work?

Each time the PDF is opened in Adobe Acrobat Reader, the encrypted hash value will be deciphered using the PandaDoc public key. If the hash value doesn’t match the one Adobe Acrobat Reader generates using the same mathematical algorithm, it means the document was modified after completion.

See below:

  1. Open a signed and completed document in PandaDoc and click Download

  2. At this point, PandaDoc generates a protected PDF. You will see a confirmation notice once it’s finished

  3. When the PDF is opened in Adobe Acrobat, the green icon on the blue bar at the top indicates that this signed document PDF hasn’t been modified

  4. If any other icon appears, this indicates that the PDF has been modified.

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