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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Grobler, Gabriel, Makura, Sheunesu, Venter, Hein
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.00827
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author Grobler, Gabriel
Makura, Sheunesu
Venter, Hein
author_facet Grobler, Gabriel
Makura, Sheunesu
Venter, Hein
contents Tampering or forgery of digital documents has become widespread, most commonly through altering images without any malicious intent such as enhancing the overall appearance of the image. However, there are occasions when tampering of digital documents can have negative consequences, such as financial fraud and reputational damage. Tampering can occur through altering a digital document's text or editing an image's pixels. Many techniques have been developed to detect whether changes have been made to a document. Most of these techniques rely on generating hashes or watermarking the document. These techniques, however, have limitations in that they cannot detect alterations to portable document format (PDF) signatures or other non-visual aspects, such as metadata. This paper presents a new technique that can be used to detect tampering within a PDF document by utilizing the PDF document's file page objects. The technique employs a prototype that can detect changes to a PDF document, such as changes made to the text, images, or metadata of the said file.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_00827
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Technique for the Detection of PDF Tampering or Forgery
Grobler, Gabriel
Makura, Sheunesu
Venter, Hein
Cryptography and Security
Tampering or forgery of digital documents has become widespread, most commonly through altering images without any malicious intent such as enhancing the overall appearance of the image. However, there are occasions when tampering of digital documents can have negative consequences, such as financial fraud and reputational damage. Tampering can occur through altering a digital document's text or editing an image's pixels. Many techniques have been developed to detect whether changes have been made to a document. Most of these techniques rely on generating hashes or watermarking the document. These techniques, however, have limitations in that they cannot detect alterations to portable document format (PDF) signatures or other non-visual aspects, such as metadata. This paper presents a new technique that can be used to detect tampering within a PDF document by utilizing the PDF document's file page objects. The technique employs a prototype that can detect changes to a PDF document, such as changes made to the text, images, or metadata of the said file.
title A Technique for the Detection of PDF Tampering or Forgery
topic Cryptography and Security
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.00827