can .NET application ask the MS-Windows system to unblock a DRM protected PDF file so it can decode it?

Question

I know some programming framework offer DRM management. I ask if .NET technology is suitable to unblock a DRM protected PDF file (Adobe DRM first of all) so that the application can open and read it (it can parse the file, it just wants the file unblocked).

Answer 1

If you're talking about downloading a file and that its blocked, this is stored in an alternate data stream attached to the file in question with a name of "Zone.Identifier".

For instance, if you downloaded test.pdf, then test.pdf:Zone.Identifier will exist. You can see this file by launching notepad from the command line with "notepad test.pdf:Zone.Identifier".

Another tool to see these files is ADSSpy .

Another good resource talking about it http://www.flexhex.com/docs/articles/alternate-streams.phtml