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n00b.exe
Asked: 2019-03-21 06:52:21 +0800 CST

imagemagick - convert not allowed [duplicate]

  • 772

I have multiple *.jpeg pictures I like to merge into a single *.pdf file like so:

convert Blatt1.jpg Blatt2.jpg Blatt3.jpg Blatt4.jpg out.pdf

I am prompted with the following exception:

convert: attempt to perform an operation not allowed by the security policy `PDF' @ error/constitute.c/IsCoderAuthorized/408

What causes this problem and how can I fix it? I did some research but couldn't find anything about this particular problem.

pdf convert imagemagick jpeg

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    ImageMagick has some security policies disabling some rights for security reasons. See why at the bottom of this answer.
    You will have to edit a config file to re-enble the action you need.

    Open /etc/ImageMagick-6/policy.xml with your favorite text editor, find the line <policy domain="coder" rights="none" pattern="PDF" /> and replace "none" by "read|write"

    # Open the file 
sudo nano /etc/ImageMagick-6/policy.xml

# find and edit the line
<policy domain="coder" rights="none" pattern="PDF" />
# to :
<policy domain="coder" rights="read|write" pattern="PDF" />

    About ImageMagick security policy
    The restricted policy is made to prevent unknown vulnerabilities coming from third party software as Ghostscript used here for PDF files. Be sure to update Ghostscript.

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  2. Because of a known bug with security implications, the conversion to pdf is disabled in ImageMagick convert.

    I suggest that you work around the problem,

    • either
      • Import the pictures into LibreOfffice and save the document.
      • Export as pdf from LibreOffice.
    • or

      • install img2pdf from the repository 'universe'

        sudo apt install img2pdf

        and run the following command line to create a pdf file with several pictures corresponding to the question or something similar for other cases,

        img2pdf --out out.pdf Blatt1.jpg Blatt2.jpg Blatt3.jpg Blatt4.jpg

      • There are details for fine tuning in the manual man img2pdf

    Edit: There is a solution now, ghostscript is new enough in my computers, and I think in most up to date Linux operating systems:

    Additional info: be sure, you have installed GhostScript >= 9.26. After that you can play around with policy.xml https://suse.com/support/kb/doc/?id=000019384:

    So we can do the edits in the accepted answer and start using ghostscript again to convert to pdf with ImageMagick convert.

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