pdfsig(1) General Commands Manual pdfsig(1)
NAME
pdfsig - Portable Document Format (PDF) digital signatures tool
SYNOPSIS
pdfsig [options] [PDF-file] [Output-file]
DESCRIPTION
pdfsig verifies the digital signatures in a PDF document. It also
displays the identity of each signer (commonName field and full
distinguished name of the signer certificate), the time and date of the
signature, the hash algorithm used for signing, the type of the
signature as stated in the PDF and the signed ranges with a statement
wether the total document is signed. It can also sign PDF documents
(options -add-signature or -sign).
pdfsig uses the trusted certificates stored in the Network Security
Services (NSS) Database.
pdfsig also uses the Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) (refer
to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_Certificate_Status_Protocol) to
look up the certificate online and check if it has been revoked (unless
-no-ocsp has been specified).
The NSS Database is searched for in the following locations:
o If the -nssdir option is specified, the directory specified by
this option.
o The NSS Certificate database in the default Firefox profile.
i.e. $HOME/.mozilla/firefox/*.default.
o The NSS Certificate database in /etc/pki/nssdb.
OPTIONS
-nssdir [prefix]directory
Specify the database directory containing the certificate and
key database files. See certutil(1) -d option for details of the
prefix. If not specified the other search locations described in
DESCRIPTION are used.
-nss-pwd password
Specify the password needed to access the NSS database (if any).
-nocert
Do not validate the certificate.
-no-ocsp
Do not perform online OCSP certificate revocation check (local
Certificate Revocation Lists (CRL) are still used).
-no-appearance
Do not add appearance information when signing existing fields
(signer name and date).
-aia Enable the use of Authority Information Access (AIA) extension
to fetch missing certificates to build the certificate chain.
-dump Dump all signatures into current directory in their native
format. Most likely it is either a unpadded or zero-padded
CMS/PKCS7 bundle.
-add-signature
Add a new signature to the document.
-new-signature-field-name name
Specifies the field name to be used when adding a new signature.
A random ID will be used by default.
-sign field
Sign the document in the specified signature field present in
the document (must be unsigned). Field can be specified by
field name (string) or the n-th signature field in the document
(integer).
-nick nickname
Use the certificate with the given nickname for signing (NSS
backend). If nickname starts with pkcs11:, it's treated as
PKCS#11 URI (NSS backend). If the nickname is given as a
fingerprint, it will be the certificate used (GPG backend)
-backend backend
Use the specified backeng for cryptographic signatures
-kpw password
Use the given password for the signing key (this might be
missing if the key isn't password protected).
-digest algorithm
Use the given digest algorithm for signing (default: SHA256).
-reason reason
Set the given reason string for the signature (default: no
reason set).
-etsi Create a signature of type ETSI.CAdES.detached instead of
adbe.pkcs7.detached.
-list-nicks
List available nicknames in the NSS database.
-list-backends
List available backends for cryptographic signatures
-v Print copyright and version information.
-h Print usage information. (-help and --help are equivalent.)
EXAMPLES
pdfsig signed_file.pdf
Displays signature info for signed_file.pdf.
pdfsig input.pdf output.pdf -add-signature -nss-pwd password -nick my-
cert -reason 'for fun!'
Creates a new pdf named output.pdf with the contents of
input.pdf signed by the 'my-cert' certificate.
pdfsig input.pdf output.pdf -add-signature -nss-pwd password -nick
'pkcs11:token=smartcard0;object=Second%20certificate;type=cert'
Same, but uses a PKCS#11 URI as defined in IETF RFC 7512 to
select the certificate to be used for signing.
pdfsig input.pdf output.pdf -sign 0 -nss-pwd password -nick my-cert
-reason 'for fun!'
Creates a new pdf named output.pdf with the contents of
input.pdf signed by the 'my-cert' certificate. input.pdf must
have an already existing un-signed signature field.
AUTHOR
The pdfsig software and documentation are copyright 1996-2004 Glyph &
Cog, LLC and copyright 2005-2015 The Poppler Developers -
http://poppler.freedesktop.org
SEE ALSO
pdfdetach(1), pdffonts(1), pdfimages(1), pdfinfo(1), pdftocairo(1),
pdftohtml(1), pdftoppm(1), pdftops(1), pdftotext(1) pdfseparate(1),
pdfunite(1) certutil(1)
28 October 2015 pdfsig(1)
poppler 24.03.0 - Generated Wed Mar 6 14:51:00 CST 2024