Genuine PDF Forgeries: Attacking Signature Verification via Human Factors

# Genuine PDF Forgeries: Attacking Signature Verification via Human Factors

https://gcdradar.vercel.app/incidents/genuine-pdf-forgeries-attacking-signature-verification-via-h · AIR-2026-1963 · live

- Lane: Research
- Severity: 1 (Research / proof of concept): Demonstrated research attack with no known real-world exploitation.
- Fix status: Fix status unknown
- First reported: 2026-11-13
- AI role: No AI role
- Products: PDF viewers

## Summary

Researchers presented a novel attack class that targets the disconnect between cryptographically verifiable signer certificates and human-visible signature blocks in documents. The evaluation across 23 PDF viewers found widespread vulnerabilities in signature reporting.

## What to do

No action recorded; read the sources below and the vendor's advisory.

## Latest updates

- 2026-11-13: What You See Is (Not) What You Got: The Human Factor in PDF Signature Verification (https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.15472)

## Sources

- 2026-11-13 arXiv: What You See Is (Not) What You Got: The Human Factor in PDF Signature Verification https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.15472

Verify against the vendor's advisory before changing production. Data CC BY-SA 4.0, https://gcdradar.vercel.app.