PDF Advanced Electronic Signatures (PAdES)

Starting with version 7.0, Foxit PDF SDK supports PAdES (PDF Advanced Electronic Signature), which applies CAdES signatures to PDF. CAdES is a new standard for advanced digital signatures; its default subfilter is ETSI.CAdES.detached. PAdES signatures are classified into four levels: B-B, B-T, B-LT, and B-LTA.

• B-B: Contains the basic required attributes.
• B-T: Builds on B-B by including a document timestamp or signature timestamp to provide trusted time for the existing signature.
• B-LT: Builds on B-T by including DSS/VRI to provide certificate and revocation information.
• B-LTA: Builds on B-LT by providing trusted time (DTS) for the existing revocation information.

Foxit PDF SDK provides a default signature callback with subfilter ETSI.CAdES.detached for signing and verifying signatures with that subfilter. It also provides the TimeStampServerMgr and TimeStampServer classes for configuring and managing timestamp servers. The default signature callback for subfilter ETSI.CAdES.detached uses the default timestamp server.

Foxit PDF SDK provides methods to obtain the PAdES level from a signature; applications can also determine the level based on each level's requirements. For more details on adding, signing, and verifying PAdES signatures in PDF documents, see the pades example in the \examples\simple_demo directory of the download package.