This is a process referred to in government as "Content Disarm and Reconstruction." But I can't stress this enough: if you don't trust the files, you shouldn't be processing them at all locally.

I built a similar tool that converts >300 formats to images in a remote sandbox. https://preview.ninja/

How do I safely read them from the remote box, assuming we really expect the box to get compromised?

If the box is compromised and I RDP, I can get mashed by an RDP exploit. If I download the image or pdf, I can get mashed with an image or PDF exploit.

This is why I never trusted the Qubes image/PDF disarm workflow

Qubes OS has a convenient option to convert any PDF or picture into a trusted one, using strong hardware virtualization: https://blog.invisiblethings.org/2013/02/21/converting-untru...

I don't have experience with Qubes in order to know what the files do, but this repo references two files in a qubes directory: e.g. https://github.com/freedomofpress/dangerzone/blob/v0.6.0/qub...

This would be a really cool feature to have in Microsoft powerautomate, so every pdf I receive on outlook funnels through this.

I use this tool often. I donate to support as well.