In this exclusive interview, the Steering Committee head explains how media signing and a new partnership with C2PA aim to protect video authenticity against tampering and deepfakes
When ONVIF, the leading global standardization initiative for IP-based physical security products, in June 2025 announced a strategic partnership with the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA), the two organizations tapped into a field where challenges are mounting, but awareness is lacking in the physical security industry: Video footage tampered by bad actors with fraudulent intent.
While it might not be in the focus of many industry professionals that, at a time when AI enhancement is hot topic, unaltered authenticity can be a key differentiator, ONVIF is seeking to stay ahead of the curve.
Leo Levit, Chairman of the ONVIF Steering Committee, sat for an interview with asmag.com to dig deeper into the challenge of tampered footage, and the solutions that camera brands can offer in the future, with the help of ONVIF forthcoming media signing add-on.
Q: What motivated ONVIF and C2PA to team up to tackle the issue of tampered security video footage? How do the missions of ONVIF and C2PA complement each other, especially now that AI-generated deepfakes are no longer a fringe issue?
Levit: The missions of ONVIF and the C2PA are indeed complementary as each of us aims to inform and educate about the dangers of manipulated video, although we are approaching it from two technologically different angles. Although deepfakes and other manipulated videos are now routine, we believe the level of awareness of this problem, particularly regarding the impact on video surveillance footage within the physical security and surveillance industries, is actually quite low.
However, we are not only trying to protect against current threats but also attempting to stay ahead of what's coming next. This only emphasizes the importance of this collaboration between ONVIF and the C2PA for education that spans many different industries and video use cases.
Q: ONVIF and C2PA are aligning their standards for authenticating footage. Tell us about the challenge to make standards compatible that were developed for different formats, from JPG and MP4 to the video recording formats used in the security industry?
Levit: ONVIF media signing is focused on securing video streams from the camera, vs the handling of still images and other digital assets that come into play under the C2PA, so the standards share a similar goal with differing approaches.
Q: ONVIF has developed the media signing standard to authenticate footage at the edge. What is it and how does it work from a technical point of view? How is the digital signature added to every frame? How does it protect metadata that contains information about the provenance of the footage?
Levit: On a technical level, media signing involves a camera having a unique signing key that is used to sign a group of video frames, where each frame is accounted for. The signature is then embedded in the video. When the video is played through a media player (like a standalone video player or video management client) that supports media signing and a trusted root certificate from the camera manufacturer, the media player can verify that the video data originated directly from that specific camera and has not been tampered with.
If pixels in a video frame have been altered, or frames have been removed or reordered, the signature verification will fail and the video player signals that the video is not valid.
Q: How widely has media signing been adopted by camera manufacturers so far? How can more manufacturers get their edge devices ready to do the cryptography workload and create the additional metadata?
Levit: ONVIF is still working to finalize the media signing capability for release so manufacturers can test their implementation and apply for ONVIF conformance. Media signing will be introduced in the form of an
add-on. These are different from our traditional
profiles, which do not change once they are published to ensure backwards compatibility. In contrast, add-ons are more agile, and can be versioned, updated and are faster and easier to bring to market.
This means manufacturers can implement add-ons in new products without waiting for the development of a new profile, and we can adapt the media signing technology as the threats continue to evolve. Some camera and edge device manufacturers are already working to implement media signing in their products based on the publicly available open source code from ONVIF on
GitHub. This enables manufacturers to work on their implementations while ONVIF finalizes the media signing offering, which will likely increase the speed of adoption and conformance once the add-on is ready for the market to deploy.
Q: How does the proactive approach of media signing differ from other, detection-only tools to spot fakes? What benefits does media signing have? Using the method, how do security teams find out the footage they’re viewing has been tampered?
Levit: Media signing provides the ability to validate that the video is authentic from the source and whether any frame has been altered along the chain of custody – whether it's in the VMS, during transfer, or in storage. If there are any alterations, the verification of the signature fails. This verification happens during video playback in a VMS, for example, that supports media signing. The ability to secure the video at the source - down to the specific camera - allows the possibility to verify the video authenticity throughout the entire chain of custody.
Q: Media signing is a technology for edge devices. Might AI-enhanced “improvements” done in the cloud (e.g., noise removal or stabilization) inadvertently trigger a tamper alert?
Levit: Media signing is designed to certify the authenticity of the video as originally captured by the specific camera sensor. If there are any alterations or “enhancements” to the video, the video will not be authentic and the signature will not be validated.
Q: How does ONVIF ensure the signature cannot be removed or a forged version of the signature be affixed to deepfake footage?
Levit: If the metadata, which includes the signatures, is removed, then the video will be unsigned and cannot be certified as authentic. Media signing requires the use of cryptographic signing keys, so it's important that these keys are stored securely in the device to prevent any potential forgery.
Q: To what extent is media signing accepted as evidence in courts of law in different jurisdictions? Are you working with legal or forensic stakeholders to extend its reach?
Levit: As ONVIF is still working on its formal release of the media signing capability, we are in the early stages of market education and outreach to the legal and law enforcement communities to provide context on this solution. As ONVIF offers its standards globally, there are many different standards to which video footage is held in many different court systems.
However, if questions arise about the authenticity of video footage – whether that is body cam footage offered as crucial evidence in a court case or surveillance video supporting a corporate investigation – it’s clear that the value of video as evidence is beginning to be compromised. And once that trust erodes, it doesn't just affect one case – it affects the entire system. ONVIF is exploring the release of an ONVIF player that would include video validation functionality for the purpose of ensuring the video authenticity in forensic settings as well in court.
Q: ONVIF and C2PA benefit from each other’s expertise with minimal overhead. Beyond that, what strategical benefits do you see in such cooperations in the long term? Are other, similar efforts planned?
Levit: Most of our efforts in the near term will focus on market education efforts to continue to raise awareness of the need for increased authentication and provenance measures. As both organizations focus on different markets, we’ll be looking for examples from diverse industries that may have similar needs and use cases. We are in the early days of our partnership with the C2PA and we’re excited to see how our collaboration will unfold.