Rights Mgmt for Reader Mobile FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions about Rights Management support in Adobe Reader X for mobile devices

On 10/17/2011, Adobe released Adobe Reader 10.1 for iOS and Android, which incorporated support for accessing files secured by Adobe LiveCycle Rights Management. LiveCycle Rights Management protects sensitive documents by encrypting them with industry-standard AES encryption and enabling central management of their access permissions. Protections persist even when documents are accidentally distributed via email, the cloud, or saved on a lost mobile device.

In addition to the FAQs below, feel free to participate in the forums and provide feedback via support:

• Forums: http://forums.adobe.com/community/adobe_reader_forums?view=overview
• Support: http://www.adobe.com/support/livecycle

What versions of the LiveCycle server are supported?

Only the two most recent releases are supported: Adobe Digital Enterprise Platform Rights Management (version 10) and Adobe LiveCycle Rights Management ES2 (version 9). If you are running version 9, verify your server is running Service Pack 2 (version 9.0.0.2) and has been patched with “QF 2.126” (available by contacting Adobe Support at http://www.adobe.com/support/livecycle)

What types of authentication does Adobe Reader X for mobile support?

The devices currently support only a subset of Rights Management authentication schemes: username/password and anonymous. We are considering adding support for our other LiveCycle authentication types for future releases, including Kerberos, Smartcard/PKI certificate-based authentication, SAML-based authentication, or other SSO mechanisms.

How will my experience differ from opening other PDFs within Adobe Reader for iOS and Android?

You will be prompted to identify yourself as the device communicates with the LiveCycle Rights Management Server.

If the author chooses to revoke a document, or that document is set to expire, how will that affect my ability to view it in Adobe Reader for iOS and Android?

Like on the desktop, you will no longer be able to open documents after they have been revoked or expired.

I am unable to open a protected document that I can open on my desktop. Why?

We have seen three typical reasons for this:

1. The server version is not one of the two most recent releases.
2. The SSL configuration on the server isn’t correctly configured.
3. The protected document has a dynamic text or graphical watermark.

These topics are covered in additional depth elsewhere in this document.

Why might there be a problem with SSL encrypting communications between Reader and the LiveCycle server?

• Desktop OSes tend to be more consistent and forgiving of SSL trust issues. For example, if the SSL certificate presented to the mobile device contains any self-signed certificates, Reader may not trust them and will refuse to open documents. (You may be used to the relatively unsafe approach on the desktop, where you are able in your browser to “trust” an arbitrary certificate … that will not work here.)
• Desktop OSes also tend to have an additional root CA and intermediate CAs already deployed and either are more lenient of servers that do not contain all the intermediate CAs or that contain the chain in the wrong order. An experienced administrator can run

  openssl s_client -showcerts -connect server.domain.com:443
  

  to determine whether all the intermediates are sent in the correct order. If they are not being sent in the correct order, he may need to recreate the application server keystore file by individually importing the appropriate certificates using the keytool application in the correct order.

• It may be helpful to try to browse to the RM server via an https connection in the device's web browser. If you encounter an error, it may be indicative of a broader SSL configuration problem.
• For additional guidance, contact Support at http://www.adobe.com/support/livecycle.

Why am I unable to open protected documents with dynamic watermarks?

The current version of Reader does not know how to display dynamic text or graphical watermarks. Because some customers believe the watermark is an important part of the document experience, and this version of Reader is not capable of displaying watermarks, when it senses that a protected document contains a watermark, it declines to decrypt. As a workaround, policy administrators can choose to change the policy to not take advantage of the dynamic watermarking feature. This behavior may change in the future. You can let us know if displaying dynamic watermarks is an important feature for you at  http://www.adobe.com/support/livecycle.

Why am I unable to open a protected document when in “airplane mode” on my device, even though I can open protected documents on the desktop while disconnected?

The current version of Reader does not support opening documents while offline. We are considering changing this behavior in the future. You  can let us know if opening documents while in airplane mode is an important workflow for you at http://www.adobe.com/support/livecycle.

Last updated 10/17/2011