How to remove a virus from a PDF file?

[stringcheeseincident]

I have this PDF file that I'm trying to send to a bunch of my friends. I've scanned it many times with AVG, a few other free antivirus programs, spyware programs, etc. I know its clean and isn't infected. However, a few friends who use Yahoo mail say that Yahoo detects it as being a virus and won't let them download it. I really want to stop that from happening and get this file to them. Are there any programs that will sort of recompile the PDF to make sure it's clean? I don't know much about PDFs nor their structure so I don't know what to look for. Any help is appreciated.

 

[gorcorps]

open it in your pdf reader and see if you can 'save as' and rename it or something, then try it again

 

[Steve]

Does it have a second extension? Something like:

filename.pdf____________________________________________________________.bat

 

[stringcheeseincident]

Nope, it's a plain old .pdf file. Nothing hidden. Just tried doing Save As, saved it with a new file name, sent it to an old Yahoo email address of mine and it still says it's infected.

 

[Mark R]

probably a defective virus scanner used by Yahoo.

Try zipping it up. However, some virus scanners are sneaky enough to unzip files and then scan them. But, no virus scanner can scan through a password protected zip...

 

[CTho9305]

You could print it to a postscript and convert that back to a PDF if you aren't completely sure the PDF is clean. Of course, if you do have a virus, it could immediately infect the new PDF as well.

 

[AnitaPeterson]

PDF files have virii, now?

 

[Blackforge]

run a virus check on your system using kaspersky's online scanner or some other one to see if it gets detected as a virus. If it doesn't... zip it and password protect it.

 

[RSMemphis]

Originally posted by: Mark R
probably a defective virus scanner used by Yahoo.

Try zipping it up. However, some virus scanners are sneaky enough to unzip files and then scan them. But, no virus scanner can scan through a password protected zip...

Sounds like your best bet. You could use 7z or rar, which are less likely to be scanned by virus scanners.