Unable to Password Protect PDF Permissions in LO Writer When in Draw

[MattC]

When I create a document in LO Writer and want to protect the editing of the text in a PDF, I select ‘Export as PDF’, click on the ‘Security’ tab and set the password up, but in permissions only. Selecting the ‘Not permitted’ radio buttons, I click on Export and save the file. However, when I open up the file in Draw and click ‘Cancel’ when prompted for a password, I am able to easily change the text. I though that for some reason it was somehow still holding my password as it was on the same system, but when trying to open the file in another system, it still works. This does not seem very secure, as anyone with LO Draw can edit my text.

Following is a simple file protected as above. When prompted for the password, click ‘Cancel’. Then try editing.

test.pdf (7.4 KB)

[EarnestAl]

The pdf editor, Adobe Acrobat, says editing is not allowed and requires a password to edit.
.
LibreOffice Draw is not a pdf editor, it is a drawing program. It can open a pdf as a drawing and can save it as: a drawing, a pdf or it can overwrite the original pdf with a new pdf file but with the same name. Note that this is completely new pdf file with different properties to the original pdf; in other words the original has been deleted.
Note that a pdf created by Acrobat X Pro with editing password is affected the same way.

If you want to make a pdf more difficult to edit in a drawing program then, in Writer, you could click Tools > Redact. A copy of the document will open in Draw. In the floating Redact toolbar, click Export Redacted PDF (Black) and save with a name. The resulting file will be bitmap images of the page(s)