How to verify a signed document: in Legale and in your PDF reader
There are two ways to check that a document signed with Legale is valid: review its verification inside Legale, with the evidence of the signing process, and validate the signature in your PDF reader. If Adobe Reader shows “Signature validity is UNKNOWN”, it doesn’t mean the signature is fake: it’s a program setting that you fix once per computer.
Verify a document inside Legale
- Documents In progress and also Finished ones have the Verification option.
- From there you see the document’s evidence: its details, the signers, the GUID, the document ID and more.
- Previously, the option disappeared when the document was finished. It now remains available after the signing workflow ends, so you can review traceability and validate the document whenever you need to.
Why Adobe shows “validity unknown”
Adobe has its own list of certification authorities it trusts by default, the Adobe Approved Trust List (AATL), with authorities mainly from the United States and the European Union. Chilean certification authorities aren’t distributed through that channel: they’re published by the Chilean State itself.
So Adobe’s message means “I don’t recognize this certification authority because it’s not on my list”. It doesn’t say the signature is fake. In fact, alongside the warning, Adobe confirms that the document hasn’t been modified since the signature was applied. A document’s legal validity is defined by Chilean law, not by the program you open the PDF with.
Who accredits the advanced electronic signature in Chile
In Chile, the authority is the Accrediting Entity, which operates within the Undersecretariat of Economy and Smaller Companies of the Ministry of Economy, Development and Tourism. The legal framework is Law 19,799 of 2002, on electronic documents, electronic signatures and certification services, and Supreme Decree 181 of 2002, which regulates it. The law establishes functional equivalence: an electronically signed document has the same value as one signed on paper.
The advanced electronic signature certificates Legale uses are issued by E-SIGN S.A., a provider accredited since 2005 (Resolution R.A.E. No. 330, of June 1, 2005). You can confirm this in the public registry of accredited entities at entidadacreditadora.gob.cl.
Step by step: make Adobe show the signature as valid
- Download E-Sign’s root certificate from www.entidadacreditadora.gob.cl/certificados-raiz and unzip it. Always download it from the Ministry’s site: don’t use Adobe’s “Add to trusted certificates” button, because it trusts the certificate embedded in the same PDF, which isn’t an independent source.
- In Adobe Acrobat Reader, open Preferences → Signatures and, under Identities & Trusted Certificates, click More.
- Select Trusted Certificates, click Import and choose the .cer or .crt file you downloaded.
- With the certificate selected, click Edit Trust and check only “Use this certificate as a trusted root” and “Signed documents or data”. Leave dynamic content, embedded high-privilege JavaScript and privileged system operations unchecked: they aren’t needed to validate a signature.
- In Preferences → Signatures → Verification → More, turn on certificate revocation checking and choose to verify signatures using the time they were created, not the current time. That way a valid signature doesn’t appear invalid when the signer’s certificate expires.
- Close and reopen the PDF. You should see the message “Signed and all signatures are valid”.
This setup is done once per computer. The help center guide Why does Adobe say my signature is unknown or invalid has the details.
Frequently asked questions
Is the signature no longer valid if Adobe shows “validity unknown”?
No. The message means Adobe doesn’t have the Chilean certification authority on its list. Legal validity doesn’t depend on the PDF reader.
Do I have to configure Adobe every time I open a document?
No. Doing it once on each computer is enough.
Can I see the evidence of a document that’s already finished?
Yes. The Verification option remains available for finished documents, with the signers, GUID, document ID and the rest of the evidence.
Where can I confirm that E-Sign is an accredited provider?
In the Accrediting Entity’s public registry at entidadacreditadora.gob.cl, which also lists entities whose accreditation was revoked.
To learn how to get your own advanced signature, read Cloud advanced electronic signature. And to see all of Despapeliza’s signature options, visit Electronic signature.