I found a 2020 blog from Adobe about this:
https://blogs.adobe.com/security/2020/06/introducing-adobe-acrobat-dc-protected-mode-preview.html
The gist of it is that the extra security consists of working with the document in a sandbox. It's sort of like teaching your kid not to wander off, but in case that doesn't work, building a fence around the sandbox.
The blog makes it pretty clear that since the Adobe PDF standard was written first, and the sandbox was introduced later, lots of PDF-generating software was developed with no concern about whether the documents would work in the sandbox. So there are many legitimate documents around that won't work in the sandbox.
I try to stay informed on security concerns. I know there are lots of problems with malicious Microsoft Word and Excel files. I haven't heard of widespread problems with PDF files. And from the blog, it appears that quite a few businesses have to keep this mode off, and we don't seem to hear them screaming about it. |
