Encrypt and Decrypt PDFs in Python, Rust, Go

Binding coverage. Decryption (opening with a password) is supported in all five bindings. Saving a new encrypted PDF is available in Python, Rust, Go (DocumentEditor.SaveEncrypted), and WASM (saveEncryptedToBytes). The C# public API exposes password-protected opening via PdfDocument.OpenWithPassword, but a public SaveEncrypted wrapper is not yet surfaced — use the Rust CLI or the Go/Python bindings when you need to produce encrypted output from a C# pipeline.

Encrypt a PDF with a password:

Python

from pdf_oxide import PdfDocument

doc = PdfDocument("report.pdf")
doc.save_encrypted("protected.pdf", "userpass", "ownerpass")

WASM

import { WasmPdfDocument } from "pdf-oxide-wasm";

const doc = new WasmPdfDocument(bytes);
const encrypted = doc.saveEncryptedToBytes("userpass", "ownerpass", true, true, true, true);
// encrypted is a Uint8Array
doc.free();

Rust

use pdf_oxide::api::Pdf;

let mut doc = Pdf::open("report.pdf")?;
doc.save_encrypted("protected.pdf", "userpass", "ownerpass")?;

Go

package main

import (
    "log"
    pdfoxide "github.com/yfedoseev/pdf_oxide/go"
)

func main() {
    editor, err := pdfoxide.OpenEditor("report.pdf")
    if err != nil { log.Fatal(err) }
    defer editor.Close()

    if err := editor.SaveEncrypted("protected.pdf", "userpass", "ownerpass"); err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
}

Open an encrypted PDF:

Python

from pdf_oxide import PdfDocument

doc = PdfDocument("protected.pdf", password="userpass")
text = doc.extract_text(0)
print(text)

WASM

const doc = new WasmPdfDocument(encryptedBytes);
doc.authenticate("userpass");
const text = doc.extractText(0);
console.log(text);
doc.free();

Rust

let mut doc = Pdf::open_with_password("protected.pdf", "userpass")?;
let text = doc.extract_text(0)?;
println!("{}", text);

Go

doc, _ := pdfoxide.Open("protected.pdf")
defer doc.Close()

if _, err := doc.Authenticate("userpass"); err != nil { log.Fatal(err) }
text, _ := doc.ExtractText(0)
fmt.Println(text)

C#

using PdfOxide;

using var doc = PdfDocument.OpenWithPassword("protected.pdf", "userpass");
Console.WriteLine(doc.ExtractText(0));

PDF Oxide uses AES-256 encryption by default. MIT licensed, no AGPL restrictions.

Installation

pip install pdf_oxide

Encrypting PDFs

Basic Encryption

Python

from pdf_oxide import PdfDocument

doc = PdfDocument("input.pdf")
doc.save_encrypted("output.pdf", "user123", "owner456")

WASM

const doc = new WasmPdfDocument(bytes);
const encrypted = doc.saveEncryptedToBytes("user123", "owner456", true, true, true, true);
doc.free();

Rust

let mut doc = Pdf::open("input.pdf")?;
doc.save_encrypted("output.pdf", "user123", "owner456")?;

• User password — required to open and view the document
• Owner password — required for full access (printing, copying, modifying)

Open Password Only

Set a user password but no restrictions:

doc = PdfDocument("input.pdf")
doc.save_encrypted("locked.pdf", "viewpass", "adminpass")

No Open Password, Restrict Actions

Allow anyone to view, but restrict printing and copying:

Python

doc = PdfDocument("input.pdf")
doc.save_encrypted(
    "restricted.pdf",
    "",            # No password to open
    "adminpass",   # Owner password for full access
    allow_print=False,
    allow_copy=False,
    allow_modify=False,
    allow_annotate=False,
)

WASM

const doc = new WasmPdfDocument(bytes);
const restricted = doc.saveEncryptedToBytes(
    "",           // No password to open
    "adminpass",  // Owner password for full access
    false,        // allowPrint
    false,        // allowCopy
    false,        // allowModify
    false         // allowAnnotate
);
doc.free();

Rust

let config = EncryptionConfig::new("", "adminpass")
    .with_permissions(Permissions::none());
doc.save_with_encryption("restricted.pdf", config)?;

Print-Only

Allow viewing and printing, but no copying or modification:

Python

doc = PdfDocument("input.pdf")
doc.save_encrypted(
    "print-only.pdf",
    "",
    "adminpass",
    allow_print=True,
    allow_copy=False,
    allow_modify=False,
)

WASM

const doc = new WasmPdfDocument(bytes);
const printOnly = doc.saveEncryptedToBytes(
    "",           // No password to open
    "adminpass",
    true,         // allowPrint
    false,        // allowCopy
    false,        // allowModify
    true          // allowAnnotate
);
doc.free();

Rust

let config = EncryptionConfig::new("", "adminpass")
    .with_permissions(Permissions::print_only());
doc.save_with_encryption("print-only.pdf", config)?;

Permission Options

Parameter	Default	Description
allow_print	True	Allow printing the document
allow_copy	True	Allow copying text and graphics
allow_modify	True	Allow modifying content
allow_annotate	True	Allow adding annotations

Decrypting PDFs

Open with Password

Python

from pdf_oxide import PdfDocument

doc = PdfDocument("encrypted.pdf", password="secret")
text = doc.extract_text(0)
print(f"Pages: {doc.page_count()}")

WASM

const doc = new WasmPdfDocument(encryptedBytes);
doc.authenticate("secret");
const text = doc.extractText(0);
console.log(`Pages: ${doc.pageCount()}`);
doc.free();

Rust

let mut doc = Pdf::open_with_password("encrypted.pdf", "secret")?;
let text = doc.extract_text(0)?;
println!("Pages: {}", doc.page_count()?);

Save Without Encryption

Open an encrypted PDF and save an unencrypted copy:

Python

from pdf_oxide import PdfDocument

doc = PdfDocument("encrypted.pdf", password="secret")
doc.save("decrypted.pdf")

WASM

const doc = new WasmPdfDocument(encryptedBytes);
doc.authenticate("secret");
const decrypted = doc.save();
// decrypted is an unencrypted Uint8Array
doc.free();

Rust

let mut doc = Pdf::open_with_password("encrypted.pdf", "secret")?;
doc.save("decrypted.pdf")?;

Re-encrypt with Different Password

Python

from pdf_oxide import PdfDocument

doc = PdfDocument("old-protected.pdf", password="oldpass")
doc.save_encrypted("new-protected.pdf", "newuser", "newowner")

WASM

const doc = new WasmPdfDocument(encryptedBytes);
doc.authenticate("oldpass");
const reEncrypted = doc.saveEncryptedToBytes("newuser", "newowner", true, true, true, true);
doc.free();

Rust

let mut doc = Pdf::open_with_password("old-protected.pdf", "oldpass")?;
doc.save_encrypted("new-protected.pdf", "newuser", "newowner")?;

Batch Encryption

Encrypt all PDFs in a directory:

from pdf_oxide import PdfDocument, PdfError
from pathlib import Path

input_dir = Path("reports/")
output_dir = Path("protected/")
output_dir.mkdir(exist_ok=True)

for pdf_path in input_dir.glob("*.pdf"):
    try:
        doc = PdfDocument(str(pdf_path))
        out_path = output_dir / pdf_path.name
        doc.save_encrypted(
            str(out_path),
            "company2025",
            "admin2025",
            allow_print=True,
            allow_copy=False,
        )
        print(f"Encrypted: {pdf_path.name}")
    except PdfError as e:
        print(f"Failed: {pdf_path.name}: {e}")

Batch Decryption

Decrypt all PDFs using a known password:

from pdf_oxide import PdfDocument, PdfError
from pathlib import Path

input_dir = Path("protected/")
output_dir = Path("decrypted/")
output_dir.mkdir(exist_ok=True)

for pdf_path in input_dir.glob("*.pdf"):
    try:
        doc = PdfDocument(str(pdf_path), password="company2025")
        out_path = output_dir / pdf_path.name
        doc.save(str(out_path))
        print(f"Decrypted: {pdf_path.name}")
    except PdfError as e:
        print(f"Failed: {pdf_path.name}: {e}")

Supported Algorithms

PDF Oxide supports all standard PDF encryption algorithms:

Algorithm	Key Length	Security
AES-256	256-bit	Strongest (default)
AES-128	128-bit	Strong
RC4-128	128-bit	Legacy
RC4-40	40-bit	Weak (compatibility only)

save_encrypted() uses AES-256 by default. For explicit algorithm selection, use the Rust API with EncryptionConfig.

Why Not pdfplumber or pdfminer?

Neither pdfplumber nor pdfminer can handle encrypted PDFs:

• pdfplumber — raises an error on password-protected PDFs. No decryption support.
• pdfminer — limited encryption support; fails on AES-256 encrypted files.
• pypdf — supports decryption but is 15× slower than PDF Oxide for text extraction after decryption.

If you need to process encrypted PDFs at scale, PDF Oxide handles both decryption and encryption natively with AES-128 and AES-256.

Related Pages

• Encryption & Security API — full encryption API reference
• Batch Processing — parallel processing patterns
• Getting Started with Python — installation and basics