pdf-preview

If you are paranoid, you must be reluctant to open any PDF file from your mailbox, even if it comes from a friendly mail address.

pdf-preview previews the PDF for you securely thanks to its sandbox.

Usage

$ wget http://download.microsoft.com/download/C/1/F/C1F6A2B2-F45F-45F7-B788-32D2CCA48D29/Microsoft_Security_Intelligence_Report_Volume_13_English.pdf
$ ./pdf-viewer Microsoft_Security_Intelligence_Report_Volume_13_English.pdf
$ $BROWSER index.html

Features

• Extract verbatim texts (for easing copy/paste)
• Convert each PDF page in a SVG image
• Everything is serialized in JSON
• Sandboxed through SECCOMP (only a dozen syscalls allowed)

Dependencies

• json-c (libjson0-dev)
• cairo-glib (libcairo2-dev)
• poppler (libpoppler-glib-dev)
• libseccomp-dev

FAQ

Google Chrome has a PDF viewer sandboxed too, why not using it instead ?

Yes you should :)

Is it possible to convert a PDF into a malformed SVG file?

Don't know, maybe I guess. If your SVG reader has a vulnerability, then it is game over.