Password protected PDF

A customer asked us if it is possible to create a password protected PDF with powerJobs. The answer is YES, it is!

Here is the PowerShell code for protecting a PDF file with a password:

[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadFrom("itextsharp.dll")

function PSUsing {
 param (
 [System.IDisposable] $inputObject = $(throw "The parameter -inputObject is required."),
 [ScriptBlock] $scriptBlock = $(throw "The parameter -scriptBlock is required.")
 )
 
 Try {
 &$scriptBlock
 }
 Finally {
 if ($inputObject.psbase -eq $null) {
 $inputObject.Dispose()
 } else {
 $inputObject.psbase.Dispose()
 }
 }
}

$file = New-Object System.IO.FileInfo "C:\Temp\test.pdf"
$fileWithPassword = New-Object System.IO.FileInfo "C:\Temp\test_password.pdf"
$password = "secret"
PSUsing ( $fileStreamIn = $file.OpenRead() ) { 
 PSUsing ( $fileStreamOut = New-Object System.IO.FileStream($fileWithPassword.FullName,[System.IO.FileMode]::Create,[System.IO.FileAccess]::Write,[System.IO.FileShare]::None) ) { 
 PSUsing ( $reader = New-Object iTextSharp.text.pdf.PdfReader $fileStreamIn ) {
 [iTextSharp.text.pdf.PdfEncryptor]::Encrypt($reader, $fileStreamOut, $true, $password, $password, [iTextSharp.text.pdf.PdfWriter]::ALLOW_PRINTING)
 }
 }
}

You can see, we are using iTextSharp for doing this. Please download the library from here and extract the content of itextsharp-dll-core.zip to the folder where you will place your powerShell script later.

The file that you specify for $file variable will be stored with password-protection to the file $fileWithPassword.

Just run the script and open the new file with any PDF viewer and you should get this:

Bam! That’s all. Have fun!