ONVIF moves to strengthen authenticity of surveillance footage

Surveillance footage matters most when it’s relied upon after an incident, in settings such as law enforcement casework, corporate and internal investigations, insurance claims and legal proceedings. However, as manipulated and Artificial Intelligence-generated video becomes more convincing, the long-standing assumption that such footage is genuine is becoming far harder to defend.

The ONVIF Media Signing add-on enables those who depend on surveillance footage to verify where the signed video originated and whether it has been unaltered since it was created.

“Proving authenticity is central to trust in the video domain,” explained Leo Levit, chair of ONVIF’s Board of Directors. “The Media Signing add-on Release Candidate gives the security industry a standardised method to help counter manipulated video and defend authentic content.”

Levit added: “Making it an open standard ensures transparency, builds trust and enables investigators, insurers and the courts to verify video from different sources using consistent tools and workflow.”

How video signing works 

The Media Signing add-on gives network video devices, such as IP cameras and video encoders, a standardised method for cryptographically signing encoded video at the point of creation.

The signing information links the video to the specific device that produced it and protects the integrity of the signed video sequence. A video player or verification tool that supports the Media Signing Specification can then confirm whether the signed video is valid and trace it back to its source, even after the video has been shared across different platforms and services.

The add-on currently supports video. Similar support for audio is planned for future versions. In order to claim conformance with the Media Signing add-on, a given product must also conform to an ONVIF Profile.

Availability and next steps 

ONVIF has released the implementation of media signing as an open source project, publishing the framework code for both signing and verification on the ONVIF GitHub.

Opening the code to the developer community makes the ONVIF method transparent and easier to implement for camera vendors and client applications alike, while allowing anyone to examine how signing and verification work.

That transparency in the technical implementation preserves trust in the authentication process and the integrity of the video itself. The combination of open code and easier implementation is expected to help the standard gain wider adoption across the security industry.

ONVIF members can now access the specification and test tools for prototyping and testing in the ONVIF Member Portal.

ONVIF expects to release the final specification at the end of 2026.

*Further information is available online at www.onvif.org