Cheap/free way to create trusted PDF signatures?
#1
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: ORD
Posts: 14,231
Cheap/free way to create trusted PDF signatures?
Does anyone know of a certificate authority that issues certificates suitable for signing PDFs that Acrobat will trust out of the box? Everything I find seems to be several hundred dollars.
#2
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: ORD
Posts: 14,231
I think I found an answer: the South African Post Office issues certificates if you can demonstrate you can access a given email address. They cost about $5 for a year.
I tried one out (they have a handy "Try" feature that issues a free cert for 30 days) and Acrobat on a colleague's compute liked it. But they only use 1024 bit RSA keys, which is not considered secure these days. So it's not a great answer, but it's not awful either.
I tried one out (they have a handy "Try" feature that issues a free cert for 30 days) and Acrobat on a colleague's compute liked it. But they only use 1024 bit RSA keys, which is not considered secure these days. So it's not a great answer, but it's not awful either.
#3
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: San Diego, CA
Programs: GE, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 15,507
I'd be a bit concerned about that particular requirement considering how common hacking into people's email accounts is. At the very least I'd insist on 2FA for whatever email address gets that certificate (though that's probably something everyone should be doing regardless of whether a certificate is required).
#4
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: ORD
Posts: 14,231
I'd be a bit concerned about that particular requirement considering how common hacking into people's email accounts is. At the very least I'd insist on 2FA for whatever email address gets that certificate (though that's probably something everyone should be doing regardless of whether a certificate is required).