Re:The evolution of the web, and a eulogy for XHTML2
by saagarjha on Sunday October 27, 2019 @12:25PM
(#21370676)
Can you just print the PDF and get something reasonable out of it?
Re:The evolution of the web, and a eulogy for XHTML2
by shakna on Sunday October 27, 2019 @01:17PM
(#21371011)
Yes and no. Whatever prints the PDF has to be able to run the JS payload.
In the case of a physical printer, it's usually set up so there's [redacted] instead of blankness (that the JS replaces), so you get redacted images and paragraphs.
In the case of software printing to a static PDF which you can then print, the JS payload is generally set up to embed a series of rather obvious markers so that if the static copy is ever publicly revealed, they can go after you (DRM is easy when you only have a dozen customers in the entire world), but most PDF software that supports JS also supports JS disabling printing features so that little disincentive is unnecessary.
Unfortunately, this is also the case for many PDFs amongst some of the more niche use-cases. Like NDA-bound many-thousand paged specifications. The PDF standard lets you do it, so some do. Not all readers actually support embedded JS, but most do in some limited capacity.