[BrianBSL]

Originally Posted by Adam Richards

In the sense of educational information, I'd actually like to contradict your statement.

The software to decrypt PDF files does exist, though it does take awhile. At the most, it would take 8 days to guarantee a successful crack on one Pentium 4 3.00GHz computer if you attacked the password through brute forcing the encryption algorithm (which is limited to 40-bits because of US export regulations, so its not uncrackable). Software does exist that splits up the workload on this, and you could extend it to several computers, reducing it to a day, or even a mere hour if you had the resources to do it with.

Note: I never have and never will condone doing these actions, as the software that does exist is ONLY to be used for PDF files that YOU CREATED. Breaking into unautorized files is highly illegal, and can land you in serious prison time for doing so. Also, it isn't in the spirit of GP to hack such files, for several reasons, such as: from the amount of time it took the Game Design Committee to design the rules, to the fact that you'd be cheating all the other teams who decide to play by the rules.

Brandon/GDC: If you'd rather this post be deleted, just PM me, and I'll take it down.

Acrobat 5 and higher support 128-bit RC4 encryption, and Acrobat 7 supports 128-bit AES encryption on its passwords, so your theory is flawed. I think on the order of weeks is the correct timeframe.