Signature is Invalid

Cadillakin · Post by **Cadillakin** » Sat Aug 15, 2009 6:44 pm

Digital signatures are still not working. I have the Pro package and have not yet been able to create and validate a signature. I've created many digital signatures, but in each case, they are deemed invalid.

I was under the impression that digital signing would be operational in the new build. Well, the new build is here, and it's not working.

Sat Aug 15, 2009 8:00 pm

Please let me know OS used. And, if it is possible, send me any signed PDF file (attach it here - zip before, or send on Ivan@tracker-software.com).

Cadillakin · Post by **Cadillakin** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 2:47 pm

For those interested in digital signing on WinXp, Ivan notified me by mail that he has located the trouble and it should be fixed in the next build - within a week or two.

Arnold · Post by **Arnold** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 2:53 pm

Very good. I noticed the same problem. Windows XP sp3. Latest version of the viewer.

ChrisAlba · Post by **ChrisAlba** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 11:51 am

Any news on that front ?
I can confirm that I have the same problem with the latest portable version & Win XP sp3 italian.

Christine

Mon Aug 31, 2009 4:57 pm

We are planning to release the build with this fix within the week.

Shmelovski · Post by **Shmelovski** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 12:17 pm

Hello, I'm new ... really new ... to this forum. I'm guessing my issue is related to this one, but I'm not entirely sure. I too have the same problem with the "Signature Invalid" on the latest build (42.3) of the PORTABLE version of PDF X-Change Viewer Pro when running on Windows XP SP3. But, on top of that, I also get the "Click to buy now" watermark being applied when I 'sign' the document. The signature block appears normal on the page (with the exception that it says it's invalid, of course). I've checked the registration code and it's correct (the text actually turns from the colour red to blue when I type or paste it in the field). All the other normal "Pro" functions work normally. And, just for completeness, I AM the administrator on this machine AND I have the portable version 'installed' in a separate folder outside of the normal "Program Files" folder on the C: drive.

I really really like portable applications and would prefer to NOT have to go the full installation route, so what gives? Any thoughts? Thanks.

Fri Sep 04, 2009 12:32 pm

Hi Shmelovski,
And welcome to the Tracker Forums.

Can you please tell us which build of the portable verson are you using OS (XP or Vista) and service packs installed as I tried just now with the download from our website and (besides being invalid) the stamp tool worked and didn't add the "DEMO" watermarks to the document.

Regards,
Stefan

Shmelovski · Post by **Shmelovski** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 2:51 pm

Hello again,

Thanks for the quick response. The PORTABLE version of PDF-XChange Viewer Pro that I am using is version 2.0 and it is Build 42.3 as stated above. I am running Windows XP with Service Pack 3 and all of the latest updates (as of last Patch Tuesday). I am looking into an alternative to Adobe Acrobat Professional (Standard) for corporate use. The license that I own is technically for PDF-XChange PRO version 4 (starts with PXP40-), although I understand from other forum postings that this SHOULD work for the Viewer (including the portable version) as well. What do you think? Thanks.

X.A. Shmelovski

Post by **Tracker Supp-Stefan** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 3:43 pm

Hi Shmelovski,

With exactly the same viewer build and XP SP3 I could not reproduce the problem.
Will ask someone in the development team to check this in more detail.

Regards,
Stefan

Shmelovski · Post by **Shmelovski** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 4:19 pm

Thanks Stefan,

Just so you have all the relevant facts:

~ The machine that I am using for testing has NEVER had any PDF-XChange software installed on it. So, in theory, the registry should be completely clean.

~ I downloaded the PDF-XChange Viewer Portable version from the site just a couple days ago.

~ After unzipping the file into a new directory, I launched the program. Naturally, it was in the 'free mode' initially, with limited functionality. Then, I entered the registration information from my PDF-XChange license (as you know, it's PXP40- etc.), which worked just fine. All of the drop-down menus with the blue PRO logo then changed to the registered version. So, everything works ... except that it puts the gold and yellow watermark on every page when trying to digitally sign a document.

Hope this is clear.

Post by **Tracker Supp-Stefan** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 4:54 pm

Shmelovski,

Can you please send your serial number to support@pdf-xchange.com with a link to this topic for testing as your problem might be arising from it (despite it shows as OK initially there are some extra checks performed at save time).

Regards,
Stefan

Shmelovski · Post by **Shmelovski** » Sat Sep 05, 2009 1:58 am

Will do. Thanks for all the help. I'm sure you can get to the bottom of this.

Shmelovski · Post by **Shmelovski** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 2:27 pm

Quick update. After a bit more digging, I discovered that the software license that I had been provided was, let's just say, of questionable origin. So, I went ahead and purchased a new license, and lo and behold, ALL is well. So, apparently the other license code 'worked', but not completely. It failed when trying to sign a document. Final note -- looking forward to some VALID signatures when signing documents. I understand that we should see that any day now. Thanks for your patience, and keep up the development work. The products are excellent, and portability (for some of them) is a big plus. Kudos to the team!!!

Post by **Tracker Supp-Stefan** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 2:37 pm

Hi Everyone,

The new build is expected by the end of the day so check for updates later tonight/tomorrow and you should have valid signatures

Cheers,
Stefan

Post by **Paul - Tracker Supp** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 2:42 pm

HI Shmelovski,

thanks for posting your experiences here and I'm glad things worked out successfully. I did not see the original serial emailed to Tracker. Did you ever do that? I'd be interested in seeing it. If you have not yet, please send an email to support@pdf-xchange.com with that 'questionable' serial so we can investigate.

regards

btw - we should have the new build out tomorrow.

regards

Cadillakin · Post by **Cadillakin** » Wed Sep 09, 2009 1:37 am

Tracker Supp-Stefan wrote:Hi Everyone,

The new build is expected by the end of the day so check for updates later tonight/tomorrow and you should have valid signatures

Cheers,
Stefan

Signatures working fine in new build.

Arnold · Post by **Arnold** » Wed Sep 09, 2009 3:42 am

I must be doing something wrong then. Or there is something wrong on my system. I installed the latest version tonight and signatures still do not seem to work correctly. If I add a signature all looks well. However, if I re-open it, the signature is invisible in PDFX viewer. It is not invisible in Acrobat 6.06. A sample file is attached.

What is the difference between Sign Document and Place Signature options? TYhey seem to do the same thing.

Cadillakin · Post by **Cadillakin** » Wed Sep 09, 2009 5:53 am

Arnold wrote:I must be doing something wrong then. Or there is something wrong on my system. I installed the latest version tonight and signatures still do not seem to work correctly. If I add a signature all looks well. However, if I re-open it, the signature is invisible in PDFX viewer. It is not invisible in Acrobat 6.06. A sample file is attached.

What is the difference between Sign Document and Place Signature options? TYhey seem to do the same thing.

Arnold...

I downloaded your document.. Your signature shows up fine and it is showing as valid with the PDFX Viewer.
Ivan answered your question about the difference between place and sign..though I can't really understand his meaning... Obviously English is not his first language..

It's right here....

About differences between sign and place: place allows you to create new signature field and sign it. Sing works by the following algorithm:
1. when there are no empty signature fields into the document sign works as place.
2. when there is only one unsigned signature field it starts to singing document using this fields (similar as you click on this field)
3. when there are more than one unsigned signature fields, it will show message to click on required field.

If somebody could explain with different words, I'd appreciate it..

Cadillakin · Post by **Cadillakin** » Wed Sep 09, 2009 6:17 am

Arnold..

On a subsequent view, I do notice your signature is untrusted.. You might want to install that cert into the Trusted Zone. Just click on your signature within the document, then choose View Certificate.. Then install. Follow the prompts... Let it automatically select the certificate store...

I don't know if it will be any help with your issue, but your signature should be trusted, most assuredly by you..

Post by **Paul - Tracker Supp** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 4:54 pm

Hi Cadillakin

here goes my attempt at explaining the difference between sign and place...

My understaning of this, and I will be asking Ivan to confirm I have it right, is that the reason both "Place Signature" and "Sign Document" appear to perfom the same thing is because PDF-XChange Viewer can only place a signed signature field, it cannot place an unsigned signature field. It can however sign an unsigned signature field that has been put in place using other methods.

So "Place Signature" will create and place a Digital signature/Certificate on the document. "Sign Document" will usually work the same way as "Place Signature" unless there exists already on the document an unsigned signature field. If there is only one of these on the document then "Sign Document" will go straight to the sign document dialogue and add the signature to the existing signature field. If there is more than one unsigned signature field then "Sign Document" will pop up a message to the effect that there is more than one to choose from and to please select the one you want to sign, then the sign document dialogue will again open.

If you are interested in seeing this in action feel free to look at the 3 sample files attached. One already signed, one with a single unsigned signature field and another with 2 unsigned signature fields.

Cadillakin · Post by **Cadillakin** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 5:17 pm

Thank you, Paul

I wasn't aware that there is such a thing as an "unsigned signature field." I'm just learning about digital signatures. I've never used them till now. Tell me if you know.. what would be the point of placing an unsigned signature field within a document?

Post by **Paul - Tracker Supp** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 5:32 pm

Hi Cadillakin,

the neat thing about signing a PDF this way is that it 'fixes' the state of the document at the time of signing the document. This is why it forces a save of the document. What we have now is a signature on a document in a specific state. If that document is marked up and signed again it will be saved in the new state. It is theoretically possible, though currently unsupported in PDF-XChange Viewer, to 'retrieve' a document with the state it was in when a given signature was applied.

So a scenario I could envisage would be to create a document that requires two (or more) users to approve and potentially modify and then "sign their changes". It would be technically possible to see exactly what a given user signed off on by looking at the state the document was in when it was signed.

hope that helps

Cadillakin · Post by **Cadillakin** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 5:52 pm

Paul - Tracker Supp wrote:Hi Cadillakin,

the neat thing about signing a PDF this way is that it 'fixes' the state of the document at the time of signing the document. This is why it forces a save of the document. What we have now is a signature on a document in a specific state. If that document is marked up and signed again it will be saved in the new state. It is theoretically possible, though currently unsupported in PDF-XChange Viewer, to 'retrieve' a document with the state it was in when a given signature was applied.

So a scenario I could envisage would be to create a document that requires two (or more) users to approve and potentially modify and then "sign their changes". It would be technically possible to see exactly what a given user signed off on by looking at the state the document was in when it was signed.

hope that helps

Very informative. Thank you.

Post by **Paul - Tracker Supp** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 6:03 pm

BigMike · Post by **BigMike** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 8:52 pm

I hope the signature support will be extended in future versions.

At the moment signing works fine. But as already mentioned, you can't view the originally signed version.
Another issue is, that at the moment, the trustworthiness of signatures is totally ignored.
There's made no difference between untrusted certificates and trusted certificates. (OK, I can click on the signature and then the view certificate button, but this should be done in a more outstanding way)
Also there seems to be no check if the used (trusted) certificate was revoked.

I'm not sure about what else is possible with signatures in pdf documents and what is planned to be implemented. But I'm pretty sure, we'll see some interesting things in the future.

Best regards,
Mike

Arnold · Post by **Arnold** » Sat Sep 12, 2009 9:25 pm

I still am not sure where my problem is. And I have a use for digitally signing which I never had before. Can someone please post a sample valid digitally signed document for download. That way I can see if it is visible in PDFXV on my system. Right now if I do it, it becomes invisible on re-open. Thank you.

Cadillakin · Post by **Cadillakin** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 1:14 am

Arnold wrote:I still am not sure where my problem is. And I have a use for digitally signing which I never had before. Can someone please post a sample valid digitally signed document for download. That way I can see if it is visible in PDFXV on my system. Right now if I do it, it becomes invisible on re-open. Thank you.

Here Arnold.. Attached is a pdf file with what should be my valid signature. The signature is at the top of the page.

Cadillakin · Post by **Cadillakin** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 1:18 am

BigMike wrote:I hope the signature support will be extended in future versions.

At the moment signing works fine. But as already mentioned, you can't view the originally signed version.
Another issue is, that at the moment, the trustworthiness of signatures is totally ignored.
There's made no difference between untrusted certificates and trusted certificates. (OK, I can click on the signature and then the view certificate button, but this should be done in a more outstanding way)
Also there seems to be no check if the used (trusted) certificate was revoked.

I'm not sure about what else is possible with signatures in pdf documents and what is planned to be implemented. But I'm pretty sure, we'll see some interesting things in the future.

Best regards,
Mike

I agree with that. If you're going to implement signing, no sense in doing it half way.

Arnold · Post by **Arnold** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 6:59 pm

Thank you Cadillakin. Same problem as the ones I produce. I can see it fine in Acrobat 6.06, but it is invisible in PDFXV. If I point to it, it says Signature 1, Valid Signature but is not visible. I don't think it is my system.

Post by **Paul - Tracker Supp** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 4:15 pm

Hi Arnold,

are you saying there is nothing visible in PDFXView of Cadillakin's signed PDF? I see it fine in my viewer instance, both with and without mouse over. I've attached screenshots of the signature as I see it. Can you confirm that you see something different or do I missunderstand your post?

also - please make surfe you are using the latest release.

Arnold · Post by **Arnold** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 8:52 pm

Here is a zip file with more info. Nothing is visible in PFFXV until I mouse over it. It is visible in Acrobat 6. But does not look exactly like your screenshot. There is a question mark. Have included a couple of other screenshots for info purposes. Don't know how this works. Thank you for trying to help.

Mon Sep 14, 2009 10:43 pm

hmmm,
ok - we're past my realm of experience with certificates on the Viewer. I've asked for input from the dev team.

Thanks for your patience.

Tue Sep 15, 2009 11:00 am

Hi Arnold,

That is really strange and Ivan - our Project Manager, thinks that there might be something wrong with your system.
Is it possible that you try and install the same version of the viewer on another machine?

I will try to summarize here the information known so far for the problem:
XP SP3 (32 or 64 bit?) Using Viewer 42.4 (you said on the 9-th that you just installed the latest build so I also presume it's the stand alone and not portable one).
Is able to sign a document and sees the signature before closing the file. On consecutive opening the signature is invisible, although click-able, and has the expected signature information and windows opened. Sample files are opening fine in Adobe, but ones he creates has question mark when viewed in Adobe.

If you can add/update anything of the above please do so Arnold.

Best Regards,
Stefan

Arnold · Post by **Arnold** » Wed Sep 16, 2009 3:28 am

Installed latest version on a laptop that had never had the program installed before and the signature from Cadillakin is visible! The laptop is running Windows XP Professional not Home, while my regular computer is running XP Home. I uninstalled completely from my regular computer (XP Home) and re-installed the latest version. This did not fix it. I will keep trying, but the problem seems to be over here. Could the different versions of XP be the reason? I tried it on another computer running XP Home over here and the signature was again invisible. Thanks for the help. I hope I have not caused all this and the problem is over here.

Post by **Tracker Supp-Stefan** » Wed Sep 16, 2009 1:11 pm

Hi Arnold,

And thanks for sharing, we will investigate now if it's really possible the "XP Home Edition" to be causing this
Here at Tracker we are always trying to ... well track the problem

so don't worry there is no trouble caused and we'll get to the bottom of this.

Best,
Stefan

Arnold · Post by **Arnold** » Wed Sep 16, 2009 2:03 pm

I will look over here at any other differences between the 2 computers also. Thanks.

lobo8893 · Post by **lobo8893** » Thu Apr 22, 2010 7:29 pm

How do I attach a valid digital signature to a PDF that is password secured? I am starting with a fillable PDF, and have tried numerous ways to both add a digital signature and password protect the document to allow printing only. In every instance, the password protection invalidates the digital signature. I'm using PDFXchange Viewer (PRO) Build 50.0, newly installed on a laptop running Windows XP Professional SP3, and have also tried various options for setting security and adding a digital signature using PDF-Tools 4.0.

Thu Apr 22, 2010 11:32 pm

Please send me your file. You can attach it here, into this topic, or send it me by email Ivan@tracker-software.com.

manuels · Post by **manuels** » Tue Jun 22, 2010 9:06 pm

Hi,

How do I attach a valid digital signature to a PDF that is password secured?

It is still notworking. PDF XChange displays the signature as invalid, Acrobat as valid.

Regards
Manuel

Wed Jun 23, 2010 9:27 am

To manuels: can you please provide me with your file? you can attach it here or email it to Ivan@tracker-software.com.

manuels · Post by **manuels** » Wed Jun 23, 2010 1:34 pm

Shure,

in the zip file you find the secured and signed Test file. In the screenshot file you see the behavior of pdf-xchange and acrobat.
Thanks for support.

Best regards
Manuel

manuels · Post by **manuels** » Wed Jun 23, 2010 7:43 pm

Sorry,

it works

with the newest version.

I thought I use the newest version (update check displayed that the software is up to date), but as I checked at your product site I found out that I'm not using the newest version.

I installed the newest version now it works, great job!!!!

regards
Manuel

Post by **Paul - Tracker Supp** » Wed Jun 23, 2010 8:39 pm

HI Manuels.

Thanks great to hear. We do appreciate the feedback.

regards