Media Capture Authentication Using Embedded Timestamps and Signatures
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing digital media files lack authenticity verification, allowing for manipulation without detection, especially with advanced AI technology, rendering consumers defenseless against alterations.
Innovation Solution
A system and method for capturing authenticatable digital media files using network-connected media-capture devices, involving time-stamping, cryptographic credentials, and digital signatures to ensure the integrity of media files, even if the issuing system ceases to function.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If digital media files are captured and stored without cryptographic authentication, then the capture process is simple and fast, but the files can be manipulated without detection and consumers cannot verify authenticity
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary cryptographic actions by embedding authentication credentials (digital signatures, timestamps, hashes) into the media file at the moment of capture. This preliminary authentication ensures that the file's integrity can be verified later without requiring the original capturing device to be present or functional, thus resolving the contradiction between simple capture and reliable verification.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces cryptographic intermediaries (digital signatures, timestamps, hash values) that mediate between the media content and the verification process. These intermediaries carry authentication information independently of the original capturing system, allowing consumers to verify authenticity without direct connection to the capturing device, thereby maintaining reliability while managing complexity.
2Reliability
If cryptographic credentials are embedded in every media file, then authenticity can be verified, but the file size and processing time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the essential authentication information (hash values, digital signatures, timestamps) into separate metadata structures within the file, distinct from the main media content. This separation allows the core media file to remain efficient while the authentication layer provides verification capability, minimizing the impact on processing time and file size.
Solution Approach 2:
The system applies cryptographic hashing to only the essential metadata and signature portions of the file rather than the entire media content. This partial application of cryptographic processing provides sufficient integrity verification while significantly reducing the computational time and resources required compared to hashing the complete file.
3Reliability
If certificate validation is performed continuously, then security is maintained, but system performance decreases and energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary certificate validation and stores the validation results with the media file during capture. This preliminary validation ensures that the cryptographic credentials are trustworthy at the time of creation, and subsequent verification can rely on these pre-validated credentials, reducing the need for continuous energy-intensive validation while maintaining security.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements local quality by validating certificates at the point of capture (where the credentials are created) rather than continuously during all subsequent operations. This localized validation approach ensures security at the critical moment of credential creation while minimizing energy consumption during storage, transmission, and playback operations.
4Reliability
If the issuing system remains functional indefinitely, then credentials can be validated, but the system becomes a single point of failure and privacy concerns arise
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the validation capability by embedding all necessary validation information (digital signatures, timestamps, certificate chains) directly into the media file during capture. This segmentation allows the file to be self-contained and self-validating, eliminating the need for continuous connection to or reliance on the original issuing system, thus distributing trust rather than centralizing it.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary embedding of complete authentication credentials including self-contained verification data at the time of capture. This preliminary action ensures that the media file carries all necessary information for future validation independent of the original issuing system's operational status, reducing centralized control risks while maintaining validation reliability.
Data Source
AI summary
A media-capture device initiates acquisition of sensor data samples representing analog phenomena; encodes the samples; generates a to-be-signed data structure comprising the encoded samples and/or cryptographic hashes of the samples; generates a cryptographic hash of the to-be-signed data structure; transmits a time-stamping request to a time-stamping server, the time-stamping request comprises the cryptographic hash of the to-be-signed data structure, wherein the time-stamping server generates a signed time-stamp; generates a digital signature using the to-be-signed data structure, the signed time-stamp, a private cryptographic key, and a signed certificate for the corresponding public cryptographic key; and generates a second data structure comprising the samples, the to-be-signed data structure, and the digital signature.