Last updated on
Sep 23, 2025
Learn more about how Adobe Acrobat protects you from potential threats in PDF documents.
Security warnings are an essential feature of Adobe Acrobat that protects users from potential risks associated with PDF content. These warnings serve as a safeguard, alerting you to actions or content within a PDF that could potentially compromise your system's security or privacy. They act as a first line of defense against potential threats and act as a mechanism to:
- Inform users about potentially risky actions
- Provide an opportunity to make informed decisions
- Prevent unauthorized access to system resources
- Maintain document integrity and security
Types of security warnings
Acrobat offers various types of security warnings, each serving a specific purpose:
- Document-Level warnings: These appear as colored bars, usually yellow or red, at the top of the PDF, highlighting varying levels of security risk.
- Action-Specific warnings: These appear as a pop-up dialog box when a PDF attempts to perform a specific action, such as connecting to an external website or executing a script.
- Trust notifications: These appear as alerts that ask whether you want to trust a particular document or source for future actions.
Common causes for security warnings
Several factors can cause security warnings in PDFs:
- Attempts to access external resources or websites
- Presence of JavaScript or other executable content
- Requests to run multimedia content
- Efforts to submit form data
- Attempts to access or modify system settings
