Malicious alert message - Interactive PDF

[joaolinneu]

I am exporting an interactive pdf from InDesign, though, I am receiving the following alert when I open it in Adobe Acrobat:

“This PDF file contains potentially malicious data and to protect your computer, Adobe Acrobat Reader or Adobe Acrobat must now exit. You cannot view this file in Adobe Acrobat Reader or Adobe Acrobat”

The message has an Adobe icon, therefore I believe it is an Acrobat message and not a MacOS one.

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I tried some things, and nothing worked:

- I removed all hyperlinks from the document.

- I saved without asking to open in full-screen mode

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The 280-page pdf contains mostly still images and about 20 videos (not designed in full screen).

For each of those videos, I did 2 buttons: “Pause” and “Play”

The file also has an active Table of Content (you can click on any item and jump to its page)

One curious thing is: the malicious alert message is never displayed at the same point/page of the pdf.

I open the pdf on Acrobat and I get the alert in random pages. Usually, not in pages that contains buttons & videos.

As far as I remember, all the time the message comes when I am in full-screen view on Adobe Acrobat, as I always review the file this way.

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I am designing and exporting using InDesign CC 13.1 and opening it in Adobe Acrobat Pro DC 2018.011.20055

Using macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 (17G65)

The settings when I am exporting are:

Checked: Forms and media: INCLUDE ALL

Not checked: Embed Page Thumbnails / Create Tagged PDF / Create Adobe Layers

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When I did the document without the videos I didn’t receive the message. But this is not an option for me. I need them.

I suspect that doing buttons might be causing it, but I cannot avoid doing the buttons, as if I do not add a “play” button, videos will be only played once. And, for the purpose of this pdf, it is a must for videos to be allowed to play again.

Ideally, this document should be seen full-screen, to allow be projected.

Anyone experiencing the same problem, that might have a solution for it?

Either to avoid the malicious issue or to find a way to videos play more than once (at the viewers' discretion) without adding buttons?

Thank you!

UPDATE: I just did a version of the document without any buttons (but still with the table of content), and the issue still continues.

[Steve Werner]

I don't recall hearing of receiving this message from a PDF created in InDesign. I have heard that malicious code can be included in a PDF file, however, so I'm familiar with the message,

But it seems like the key thing from your description is this:

> When I did the document without the videos I didn’t receive the message. But this is not an option for me. I need them.

So perhaps there is malicious code in one of the videos.

You could use the tried-and-true (but somewhat tedious) method of including half of the videos but not the other half and see if you get the message. If only the PDF with the first half of the videos fails you know it's in that half; if it appears only in the second half, then it's in that half. You progressively removed videos until you see the culprit.

Another possibility: Process the video(s) in an app like Adobe Media Encoder which would recreate the code. That's part of your Creative Cloud subscription.

[joaolinneu]

Dear Steve, thank a lot for your reply.

By chance, I was doing exactly this right now, the tried-and-true you suggested.

And it is quite weird.

I have 25 videos.

I spared a pdf with only the videos.

The pdf with the 01-12 showed no problems. I played it like 5 times and nothing happened.

The pdf 13-25 presented the message.

I proceed to pdf 13-19 that presented no errors.

And, then, weirdly, the 20-25 also presented no error messages.

But I think if I keep playing on and on, at some point I might have a message. As I said, it is a bit random the timing and place it appears.

A note on the videos: all of them were made by myself. I am pretty sure I would not include a malicious in it.

But I really appreciate your suggestion on recreating the videos on Adobe Media Encoder.

Just downloaded the app, will give a try.

Once again, thank you very much for your reply. I will post if your suggestion works or not.

[Steve Werner]

It could be an Acrobat bug or false positive.

You might ask also in the Acrobat Rich Media forum:

Rich Media & 3D

It's worth a try.

[joaolinneu]

Dear Steve... no luck.

Still the warnings after re-exporting all videos.

Will follow your advice and ask in the Adobe Rich Media forum.

Thank you.

[Om Nath Jha]

Moving your thread to Rich Media & 3D​ for further assistance.

Best,

Om