PDF Digital Signature Validation
Did you ever receive a PDF document which is digitally signed? When you open this document in Adobe Acrobat Reader, you'll notice that it is validating the document by showing a very small 'green checkbox' in the top left corner. Something like this:
Ok, great, but what does it mean?
It means that this document has been 'digitally signed' or better, somebody has used 'a digital certificate' to perform 'a signature' on the content of a PDF document.
Hold up, what do we mean with a 'digital certificate' and where can I find them?
Simply put, a certificate can be seen as an electronic document which you can use to authenticate or digitally sign. A digital certificate contains information about an identity. You can find these certificates on EU national ID cards for example, or you can buy them from a Certificate Authority (CA), if you require legally binding signatures.
Now, how does that work? And how can I validate digitally signed PDF documents using an API?
This tutorial will explain:
how to validate documents in Adobe Acrobat Reader.
how to perform the same validation of digitally signed document in your own application.
For the latter, a step-by-step approach will be used. An example of an implementation is provided on Github:
https://github.com/Trust1Team/vwapp
The application is available online.
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