The US-based standards body for making IP-based physical security products interoperable, ONVIF, has announced the Release Candidate for the ONVIF Media Signing Add-on. That’s a method for confirming the authenticity and integrity of surveillance video.
As manipulated and AI-generated video becomes ever more convincing, a long-standing assumption that CCTV footage is genuine (whether for corporate and internal investigations, insurance claims, or by police for legal proceedings) is becoming harder to defend. Hence the 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.
โProving authenticity is central to trust in video. The Media Signing Add-on Release Candidate gives the security industry a standardized method to help counter manipulated video and defend authentic content,โ said Leo Levit, Chairman, ONVIF Board of Directors. โMaking it an open standard ensures transparency, builds trust and enables investigators, insurers and courts to verify video from different sources using consistent tools and workflow.โ
ONVIF will be speaking on video authenticity as part of the educational programming at the GSX 2026 show, from September 14 to 16 in Atlanta. Roberto Licari, ONVIF Ambassador, will present “Can Security Video Survive Generative AI?” on September 14 from 2:45-3:45 PM in Room B316.
How Video Signing Works
The Media Signing Add-on gives network video devices, such as IP cameras and video encoders, a 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; support for audio is planned. To claim conformance with the Media Signing Add-on, a product must also conform to an ONVIF profile.
The Media Signing Add-on gives network video devices, such as IP cameras and video encoders, a 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; support for audio is planned. To claim conformance with the Media Signing Add-on, a product must also conform to an ONVIF profile.
