How to Sanitize PDF

Chaknith Bin

Updated:June 22, 2025

Sanitizing PDFs is a crucial process with many benefits. Primarily, it enhances document security by removing potentially harmful elements like embedded scripts or metadata, thereby reducing the risk of exploitation by malicious entities. Additionally, it improves compatibility across different platforms by removing complex or proprietary elements, enhancing accessibility. By mitigating risks of data leakage and ensuring document integrity, sanitizing PDFs contributes significantly to overall security and trustworthiness in document management practices.

Get started with IronPDF

Start using IronPDF in your project today with a free trial.

First Step:

How to Sanitize PDF in C#

Download IronPDF Library from NuGet
Use the Cleaner class to sanitize PDFs in multiple ways
Scan the PDFs using the ScanPdf method
Provide a custom YARA file that meets the requirements
Receive the new sanitized PDF document

Sanitize PDF Example

The trick behind sanitizing a PDF is to convert the PDF document into a type of image, which removes JavaScript code, embedded objects, and buttons, and then convert it back to a PDF document. We provide Bitmap and SVG image types. The key differences of SVG from Bitmap are:

Quicker than sanitizing with a bitmap
Results in a searchable PDF
Layout might be inconsistent

:path=/static-assets/pdf/content-code-examples/how-to/sanitize-pdf-sanitize-pdf.cs

using IronPdf;

// Import PDF document
PdfDocument pdf = PdfDocument.FromFile("sample.pdf");

// Sanitize with Bitmap
PdfDocument sanitizeWithBitmap = Cleaner.SanitizeWithBitmap(pdf);

// Sanitize with SVG
PdfDocument sanitizeWithSvg = Cleaner.SanitizeWithSvg(pdf);

// Export PDFs
sanitizeWithBitmap.SaveAs("sanitizeWithBitmap.pdf");
sanitizeWithSvg.SaveAs("sanitizeWithSvg.pdf");

Imports IronPdf

' Import PDF document
Private pdf As PdfDocument = PdfDocument.FromFile("sample.pdf")

' Sanitize with Bitmap
Private sanitizeWithBitmap As PdfDocument = Cleaner.SanitizeWithBitmap(pdf)

' Sanitize with SVG
Private sanitizeWithSvg As PdfDocument = Cleaner.SanitizeWithSvg(pdf)

' Export PDFs
sanitizeWithBitmap.SaveAs("sanitizeWithBitmap.pdf")
sanitizeWithSvg.SaveAs("sanitizeWithSvg.pdf")

$vbLabelText $csharpLabel

Sanitize with Options

Aside from sanitizing the PDFs, IronPDF also allows us to sanitize the PDF along with ChromeRenderOptions, which enables modification of parameters such as margins, paper size, and paper orientation.

Both SanitizeWithBitmap and SanitizeWithSvg can take a second optional parameter, which is a ChromeRenderOptions object. Here's a brief example of setting the bottom target margin of the PDF to 50 px by setting the MarginBottom property to 50 px.

For a complete list of available options, please refer to here.

:path=/static-assets/pdf/content-code-examples/how-to/santize-pdf-sanitize-chrome-render-options.cs

using IronPdf;

// Customize Chrome render options
var options = new ChromePdfRenderOptions();

// Set bottom margin to 50 pixels
options.MarginBottom = 50;

// Import PDF document
PdfDocument pdf = PdfDocument.FromFile("sample.pdf");

// Sanitize with Bitmap with Chrome render options
PdfDocument sanitizeWithBitmap = Cleaner.SanitizeWithBitmap(pdf,options);

// Sanitize with SVG with Chrome render options
PdfDocument sanitizeWithSvg = Cleaner.SanitizeWithSvg(pdf,options);

// Export PDFs
sanitizeWithBitmap.SaveAs("sanitizeWithBitmap.pdf");
sanitizeWithSvg.SaveAs("sanitizeWithSvg.pdf");

Imports IronPdf

' Customize Chrome render options
Private options = New ChromePdfRenderOptions()

' Set bottom margin to 50 pixels
options.MarginBottom = 50

' Import PDF document
Dim pdf As PdfDocument = PdfDocument.FromFile("sample.pdf")

' Sanitize with Bitmap with Chrome render options
Dim sanitizeWithBitmap As PdfDocument = Cleaner.SanitizeWithBitmap(pdf,options)

' Sanitize with SVG with Chrome render options
Dim sanitizeWithSvg As PdfDocument = Cleaner.SanitizeWithSvg(pdf,options)

' Export PDFs
sanitizeWithBitmap.SaveAs("sanitizeWithBitmap.pdf")
sanitizeWithSvg.SaveAs("sanitizeWithSvg.pdf")

$vbLabelText $csharpLabel

Scan PDF Example

Use the ScanPdf method of the Cleaner class to check if the PDF has any potential vulnerabilities. This method will check with the default YARA file. However, feel free to upload a custom YARA file that meets your requirements to the second parameter of the method.

A YARA file for PDF documents contains rules or patterns used to identify characteristics associated with malicious PDF files. These rules help security analysts automate the detection of potential threats and take appropriate actions to mitigate risks.

:path=/static-assets/pdf/content-code-examples/how-to/sanitize-pdf-scan-pdf.cs

using IronPdf;
using System;

// Import PDF document
PdfDocument pdf = PdfDocument.FromFile("sample.pdf");

// Scan PDF
CleanerScanResult result = Cleaner.ScanPdf(pdf);

// Output the result
Console.WriteLine(result.IsDetected);
Console.WriteLine(result.Risks.Count);

Imports IronPdf
Imports System

' Import PDF document
Private pdf As PdfDocument = PdfDocument.FromFile("sample.pdf")

' Scan PDF
Private result As CleanerScanResult = Cleaner.ScanPdf(pdf)

' Output the result
Console.WriteLine(result.IsDetected)
Console.WriteLine(result.Risks.Count)

$vbLabelText $csharpLabel

Ready to see what else you can do? Check out our tutorial page here: Sign and Secure PDFs

Frequently Asked Questions

What is PDF sanitization?

PDF sanitization is the process of enhancing document security by removing potentially harmful elements like embedded scripts or metadata from a PDF. This reduces the risk of exploitation by malicious entities and improves compatibility and accessibility across platforms.

How can I sanitize a PDF?

To sanitize a PDF using IronPDF, you can use the Cleaner class. First, load the PDF document, then use the Cleaner class to convert the PDF into a series of SVG images, which removes harmful elements, and convert it back into a PDF.

Why should I sanitize my PDF documents?

Sanitizing PDFs is important to reduce the risk of data leakage, ensure document integrity, and enhance overall security and trustworthiness in document management.

What is the Cleaner class?

The Cleaner class in IronPDF is used to sanitize PDFs by removing potentially harmful elements and improving document security. It offers methods like Sanitize and ScanPdf to process and check PDFs for vulnerabilities.

What is the difference between using SVG and Bitmap for sanitizing PDFs?

Using SVG for sanitizing PDFs is quicker than Bitmap and results in a searchable PDF. However, the layout might be inconsistent compared to Bitmap.

How does the ScanPdf method work?

The ScanPdf method in IronPDF checks if a PDF has any potential vulnerabilities by using a default YARA file or a custom YARA file provided by the user. It helps identify characteristics associated with malicious PDFs.

Can I use a custom YARA file?

Yes, you can use a custom YARA file with IronPDF to scan for specific vulnerabilities in PDFs that meet your security requirements.

What is a YARA file?

A YARA file for PDF documents contains rules or patterns used to identify characteristics associated with malicious PDF files. It helps automate the detection of potential threats and aids security analysts in mitigating risks.

Chaknith Bin

Chat with engineering team now

Software Engineer

Chaknith is the Sherlock Holmes of developers. It first occurred to him he might have a future in software engineering, when he was doing code challenges for fun. His focus is on IronXL and IronBarcode, but he takes pride in helping customers with every product. Chaknith leverages his knowledge from talking directly with customers, to help further improve the products themselves. His anecdotal feedback goes beyond Jira tickets and supports product development, documentation and marketing, to improve customer’s overall experience.When he isn’t in the office, he can be found learning about machine learning, coding and hiking.