Appligent is offering a new Mac OS X utility for free. APStripFiles is a command line application that removes attached or embedded files from PDF documents, enabling you to protect your system from malicious unwanted PDF file attachments.
Recent events, such as the Code Red Worm virus, have required the industry to rethink the safety of daily information transfer, according to the folks at Appligent. One of the mechanisms which has come under scrutiny has been the accepted standard for document exchange, the PDF, or Portable Document Format file, they said. While this format is virtually immune to viruses, Adobe Acrobat does allow the attachment of files to PDFs. This feature, if misused, allows system vulnerability, according to Mactech Magazine.
“Using our high-performance technology, we produced a utility which will automatically strip any attachments from PDFs without damage to the PDF itself,” Appligent said in a statement introducing APStripFiles for Mac OS X.
APStripFiles offers you the option to remove the files from the original PDF document or make a copy of the PDF without the attachment, leaving the original PDF untouched. It can be used on the desktop, a Web server, or directly on an e-mail server to avoid the transfer of viruses that can be carried by a PDF file attachment. APStripFiles supports the removal of attachments from multiple PDF files using file names or wildcards.
APStripFiles for Mac OS X can be downloaded free from the Appligent Web site.