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Updated 28 Apr 2026, 22:28 UTC

PDF Fraud & Tampering Statistics

Real-world tamper rates and modification patterns from 13,759 PDF verifications

13,759
PDFs Checked
46.4%
Were Modified
24
Years Old (Oldest PDF)

Every PDF has both Creator (app that created the original document) and Producer (app that converted or last saved to PDF). They often differ even in unmodified files (e.g. Word + Print to PDF).

Top Producers

App that converted or last saved the PDF

Top Creators

App that created the original document (before PDF conversion)

Volume Overview

Total pages analyzed: 51,986

Total size of all files: 6.27 GB

Security Findings

144 PDFs were signed but then modified after signing

89 (0.6%) files contain embedded JavaScript

Longest incremental update chain: 9 revisions

Extremes

Largest document: 137 pages

Largest file: 10.28 MB

Total PDF objects analyzed: 1,528,153

Modification Calendar

Which months see the most PDF tampering, by document modification date?

January
80.9% tampered
February
71.2% tampered
March
30.2% tampered
April
64.1% tampered
May
87.2% tampered
June
57.9% tampered
July
86.9% tampered
August
85.8% tampered
September
13.4% tampered
October
36.2% tampered
November
67.9% tampered
December
61.1% tampered

Structural Anomalies

PDFs without creation date: 2400

PDFs with embedded files: 104

PDFs with incremental updates: 2091

Signature & Tool Statistics

Most common producer: iText

Digitally signed: 5.3% of all PDFs

PDF Versions in the Wild

Which PDF standard do most documents use?

PDF 1.737.8%
PDF 1.430.3%
PDF 1.513.6%
PDF 1.39.8%
PDF 1.66.5%
PDF 1.11.0%
PDF 1.21.0%
PDF 2.00.0%

Oldest PDF Analyzed

Created: 10.08.2001 02:33:00 UTC — over 24 years ago

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