Allow or block website links in PDFs

Overview

Clicking an unknown link to a website poses a security risk to your device. Malicious websites can transfer harmful content or silently gather data. To avoid such security risks, you can configure Acrobat and Acrobat Reader to display a warning when a PDF attempts to connect to an Internet site.

You can allow Acrobat and Acrobat Reader to contact selected websites by adding their URLs to the list of trusted websites in the Trust Manager preferences. Alternatively, you can allow all URLs.

Allow or block links for all or selected websites

  1. Open the Preferences dialog box in Acrobat or Acrobat Reader:

    • On Windows: Click the Edit menu and then choose Preferences.
    • On macOS: Click Acrobat or Acrobat Reader and then choose Preferences.
  2. In the Preferences dialog box, select Trust Manager in the Categories on the left and then click Change Settings.

    Select Trust Manager

  3. The Manage Internet Access dialog box is displayed.

    Manage Internet Access settings

    Note:

    If the options in the Manage Internet Access dialog box are disabled, select Custom Setting. If options are still disabled, your product could be under an administrator’s control with those restrictions in place.

  4. In the Manage Internet Access dialog box, choose from the following options:

    • To allow access to all websites, select Allow PDF Files To Access All Web Sites.
    • To restrict access to all websites, select Block PDF Files’ Access To All Web Sites.
    • To restrict access to only the websites that you specify, select Custom Setting.
    • To add a website, type its address in the Host Name text box and click Allow or Block.
    • To remove a website you no longer want to visit or block, select the website in the list, and then select Delete.
    • To specify what the program should do with websites that are not in your custom list, select one of these options: Always Ask, Allow Access, Block Access.

    Click OK to apply the changes.

  5. Select Ok to close the Preferences dialog.

Note:

If you're prompted to allow or block a URL when you open a protected PDF, select Remember My Action For This Site to add the URL to the list.

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