Signature-based file format identification tool using PRONOM, LOC FDD, and Wikidata signatures. Outputs format identification results as JSON, CSV, or YAML. Widely used in digital preservation ingest workflows.
TCR4CAP Comments
Dimension
Observation
Awareness
Siegfried identifies file formats against PRONOM and FDD signatures. Siegfried has no C2PA or provenance-specific awareness beyond format identification.
Tamper Evidence
Siegfried performs format identification only and does not assess or verify metadata integrity or tamper-evidence.
Binding
No binding mechanism. Format identification is based on file signatures.
AI Attribution
AI attribution is out of scope.
Substantiation
Outputs are structured and reproducible. Format identification results are aligned with PRONOM and FDD.
Interoperability
Apache-2.0. Widely implemented in digipres workflows. Outputs common, open formats: JSON, CSV, YAML.
Format Identification for Digital Objects. Python-based PRONOM signature tool from Open Preservation Foundation. Outputs PUID identifiers for identified formats.
TCR4CAP Comments
Dimension
Observation
Awareness
FIDO identifies file formats against PRONOM signatures. No C2PA or provenance-specific awareness beyond format identification.
Tamper Evidence
FIDO performs format identification only and does not assess or verify metadata integrity or tamper-evidence.
Binding
No binding mechanism. Format identification is based on file signatures.
AI Attribution
AI attribution is out of scope.
Substantiation
Outputs are structured and format identification results are aligned with PRONOM.
Interoperability
Apache-2.0. Python-based. Widely implemented in digipres workflows.
Technical metadata extraction for audio and video files. As of December 2025 can detect and parse C2PA metadata in JPEG, PNG, and WAV. Outputs technical metadata as XML, JSON, HTML, or plain text. Widely used in broadcast, archives, and repository workflows.
TCR4CAP Comments
Dimension
Observation
Awareness
MediaInfo extracts and reports technical metadata including C2PA detection and parsing (as of December 2025). Widely used in broadcast and archive workflows.
Tamper Evidence
MediaInfo can detect and report C2PA manifest presence. MediaInfo does not perform cryptographic verification of C2PA signatures.
Binding
MediaInfo reports C2PA manifest presence and characteristics, but does not verify the cryptographic binding between manifest and asset content.
AI Attribution
MediaInfo can report C2PA AI attribution assertions when present and does not generate or verify them.
Substantiation
Outputs are structured and technical metadata reports are reproducible. Widely used as an authoritative tool in preservation workflows for identifying the technical characteristics of audiovisual files.
Interoperability
BSD-2-Clause. Widely implemented across broadcast, archive, and repository tools. Outputs XML, JSON, HTML, plain text.
Reads and writes metadata in image, audio, and video files. Supports EXIF, IPTC, XMP, and many other mechanisms. C2PA/JUMBF metadata can be read and structurally parsed from JPEG, PNG, TIFF, DNG, MP4, MOV, HEIF, AVIF, WAV, AVI, WebP, PDF, SVG, GIF, and ID3v2. Exiftool can parse the JUMBF hierarchy and express individual CBOR assertion fields as structured tags. C2PA JUMBF data can be deleted from writable formats. ExifTool does not write or cryptographically verify C2PA manifests.
TCR4CAP Comments
Dimension
Observation
Awareness
ExifTool reads and writes EXIF, IPTC, XMP, and many other mechanisms, and provides an extensive open-source structural parsing of C2PA/JUMBF content. Widely used across creative, archive, and repository workflows.
Tamper Evidence
ExifTool can structurally parse C2PA manifests but does not perform cryptographic verification. ExifTool can silently overwrite non-C2PA metadata without detection.
Binding
ExifTool parses and exposes C2PA hard-binding fields but does not verify the cryptographic binding between manifest and asset content.
AI Attribution
ExifTool can read and structurally parse C2PA AI attribution assertions, IPTC 2025.1 AI fields, and XMP AI attribution fields. ExifTool does not generate or verify C2PA AI attribution assertions.
Substantiation
Outputs are structured and metadata reports are reproducible. Widely used as an authoritative metadata extraction source.
Interoperability
Artistic/GPL. Widely implemented across creative, archive, and repository tools. Supports a multitude of metadata formats.
JSTOR/Harvard Object Validation Environment. Format validation and characterization for digital objects. Supports AIFF, ASCII, GIF, HTML, JPEG, JPEG 2000, PDF, TIFF, UTF-8, WAVE, and XML.
TCR4CAP Comments
Dimension
Observation
Awareness
JHOVE performs format validation and characterization. JHOVE has no C2PA or provenance-specific awareness beyond format validation.
Tamper Evidence
JHOVE performs format validation only and does not assess or verify metadata integrity or tamper-evidence.
Binding
No binding mechanism. Format validation is based on format structure.
AI Attribution
AI attribution is out of scope.
Substantiation
Outputs are structured and format validation results are reproducible. Widely used in digipres ingest workflows.
Interoperability
LGPL-2.1. Widely used in digipres ingest workflows. Outputs XML.
Cross-platform checksum computation and audit tool. Supports MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256, Tiger, Whirlpool. hashdeep mode supports recursive directory checksumming and audit against a known-good manifest. Also supports Digital Forensics XML for reporting on checksums and file attributes.
TCR4CAP Comments
Dimension
Observation
Awareness
md5deep/hashdeep computes and audits file checksums. No C2PA or provenance-specific awareness beyond fixity checking.
Tamper Evidence
Checksum computation and audit against a known-good manifest detects modification of any file. No signing mechanism.
Binding
Checksum entries bind each digest to a specific file path. No cryptographic binding between the manifest and an external identity or signing authority.
AI Attribution
AI attribution is out of scope.
Substantiation
Outputs are structured and fixity records are reproducible. Widely used in digipres transfer workflows.
Interoperability
Public Domain. Widely implemented across digipres, library, and archival transfer tools.
Standalone fixity checking application. Originally created by AVPS in 2013; transferred to the Open Preservation Foundation (OPF) in September 2025. Monitors file integrity over time with scheduled checks and email reporting. Supports MD5 and SHA-256.
TCR4CAP Comments
Dimension
Observation
Awareness
Fixity Pro monitors file integrity over time. No C2PA or provenance-specific awareness beyond fixity checking.
Tamper Evidence
Scheduled fixity checks detect modification of monitored files over time. No signing mechanism.
Binding
Checksum entries bind each digest to a specific file path. No cryptographic binding between the manifest and an external identity or signing authority.
AI Attribution
AI attribution is out of scope.
Substantiation
Outputs are structured fixity reports with scheduled monitoring history. Supports email reporting for institutional workflows.
Interoperability
Maintained by OPF. Used in institutional preservation workflows.
Library of Congress BagIt implementation in Python. Creates and validates BagIt packages (RFC 8493) with payload manifests. Supports MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256, SHA-512.
TCR4CAP Comments
Dimension
Observation
Awareness
BagIt-Python creates and validates BagIt packages. No C2PA or provenance-specific awareness beyond package fixity.
Tamper Evidence
Payload and tag manifest checksums detect modification of any file within the bag. No signing mechanism at the BagIt level.
Binding
Manifest entries bind each checksum to a specific file path within the bag. Tag manifests cover bag metadata files.
AI Attribution
AI attribution is out of scope.
Substantiation
Creates and validates structured, reproducible BagIt packages. Widely used in digipres transfer workflows.
Interoperability
CC0-1.0. Library of Congress reference implementation. Widely used across digipres, library, and archival transfer tools.
Embed, validate, and export metadata in Broadcast WAVE Format files. Supports FADGI, EBU, and BEXT chunk metadata including CodingHistory, originator, origination date/time, and UMID. GUI and CLI.
TCR4CAP Comments
Dimension
Observation
Awareness
BWF MetaEdit is the reference tool for BEXT chunk metadata in BWF files. Widely used in broadcast and archival audio workflows.
Tamper Evidence
BWF MetaEdit embeds and validates BEXT chunk metadata. BWF MetaEdit does not provide cryptographic tamper-evidence for the metadata it writes.
Binding
BWF MetaEdit embeds metadata directly in the BWF file structure. There is no cryptographic binding between the metadata chunks and audio content, but BWF MetaEdit can write and verify an MD5 chunk that hashes the audio content.
AI Attribution
BWF MetaEdit can embed CodingHistory, other BEXT fields, XMP, and other metadata that could document AI processing. No structured AI attribution vocabulary or workflow is defined.
Substantiation
Outputs are structured metadata in XML and CSV conforming to FADGI guidelines. Widely used as an authoritative metadata embedding tool in archival audio workflows.
Interoperability
Public Domain / CC0. Widely implemented across broadcast, archival, and audio tools. GUI and CLI.
Open-source multimedia framework for transcoding, muxing, and processing audio and video. As of June 2026 there is no official C2PA support in the mainline codebase; however, a few ffmpeg forks (c2pa_libffmpeg_eqty) add experimental C2PA manifest embedding in MP4. FFmpeg offers substantial control over preserving metadata while transcoding.
TCR4CAP Comments
Dimension
Observation
Awareness
FFmpeg is a widely used open-source multimedia framework. No official C2PA support in the mainline codebase as of June 2026.
Tamper Evidence
FFmpeg strips most metadata by default. No cryptographic tamper-evidence for metadata it writes or preserves.
Binding
No cryptographic binding between metadata and media content. Metadata preservation depends on explicit command-line options.
AI Attribution
No structured AI attribution vocabulary. AI documentation requires explicit metadata injection via command-line options.
Substantiation
FFmpeg can preserve or inject metadata fields. No formal mechanism for publishing transformation history or CAP policies.
Interoperability
LGPL-2.1/GPL-2.0. Widely implemented across broadcast, archive, and repository tools. Supports virtually all audio/video formats.
The official CLI tool from the Content Authenticity Initiative for reading and writing C2PA manifests. Supports JPEG, PNG, MP4, WAV, and many other formats. Reads and displays manifest content, creates and signs new manifests, verifies manifest signatures and hard binding. Built on the c2pa-rs Rust SDK. Source for c2patool was moved into the contentauth/c2pa-rs repository in December 2024.
TCR4CAP Comments
Dimension
Observation
Awareness
c2patool is the official CAI CLI tool in alignment with the development of the C2PA specification. Widely used as the reference implementation for C2PA manifest creation and verification.
Tamper Evidence
c2patool verifies C2PA manifest signatures and hard binding and detects any modification to manifest or asset content.
Binding
Creates and verifies C2PA hard binding (content hash) between manifest and asset content.
AI Attribution
Provides full support for C2PA AI attribution assertions.
Substantiation
c2patool creates and verifies complete C2PA manifest stores with full transformation history. Supports external trust anchors and timestamps.
Interoperability
MIT/Apache-2.0. Official CAI reference implementation. Supports all C2PA-defined embedding paths.
Official Rust SDK for the C2PA specification from the Content Authenticity Initiative. Core library underlying c2patool, c2pa-python, and many other implementations. Provides full C2PA manifest creation, signing, embedding, and verification.
TCR4CAP Comments
Dimension
Observation
Awareness
c2pa-rs is the official CAI Rust SDK with full C2PA specification support. c2pa-rs is the core implementation underlying the C2PA ecosystem.
Tamper Evidence
c2pa-rs provides full C2PA manifest signature verification and hard binding verification.
Binding
Creates and verifies C2PA hard binding (content hash) between manifest and asset content.
AI Attribution
Provides full support for C2PA AI attribution assertions.
Substantiation
c2pa-rs creates and verifies complete C2PA manifest stores with full transformation history. Supports external trust anchors and timestamps.
Interoperability
MIT/Apache-2.0. Official CAI reference library. Widely used as the foundation for C2PA implementations across languages and platforms.
The official Python binding for the c2pa-rs library from the Content Authenticity Initiative. Enables C2PA manifest creation, signing, embedding, and verification in Python workflows. Supports all formats and assertions supported by c2pa-rs.
TCR4CAP Comments
Dimension
Observation
Awareness
The official CAI Python bindings with full C2PA specification support via c2pa-rs. Enables C2PA integration in Python-based preservation and DAM workflows.
Tamper Evidence
Provides full C2PA manifest signature verification and hard binding verification via c2pa-rs.
Binding
Creates and verifies C2PA hard binding (content hash) between manifest and asset content via c2pa-rs.
AI Attribution
Provides full support for C2PA AI attribution assertions via c2pa-rs.
Substantiation
Creates and verifies complete C2PA manifest stores with full transformation history via c2pa-rs. Supports external trust anchors and timestamps.
Interoperability
MIT/Apache-2.0. Official CAI Python bindings. Enables C2PA integration in Python-based workflows.
Online C2PA manifest verification tool from the Content Authenticity Initiative. Upload a file to inspect its Content Credentials. Displays manifest assertions, signing certificate, timestamp, and hard binding status.
TCR4CAP Comments
Dimension
Observation
Awareness
The official CAI online verification tool. Widely used for public verification of Content Credentials.
Tamper Evidence
Content Credentials Verify verifies C2PA manifest signatures and reports hard binding status and detects any modification to manifest or asset content.
Binding
Verifies C2PA hard binding status. The online tool requires file upload.
AI Attribution
Displays C2PA AI attribution assertions when present.
Substantiation
Displays complete manifest content including assertions, signing certificate, timestamp, and provenance chain.
Open-source digital preservation system implementing the OAIS reference model. Generates PREMIS events, METS/PREMIS packages, and BagIt transfers. Integrates Siegfried, JHOVE, MediaInfo, and ExifTool for format identification and characterization. No native C2PA support as of June 2026.
TCR4CAP Comments
Dimension
Observation
Awareness
Archivematica implements OAIS and generates PREMIS events and METS packages. Widely used in institutional preservation workflows. No native C2PA support.
Tamper Evidence
Archivematica generates BagIt packages with payload manifests and PREMIS fixity events. Tamper-evidence depends on the BagIt and PREMIS layers.
Binding
PREMIS fixity values and BagIt manifests bind checksums to specific file states. No cryptographic binding between metadata and asset content at the C2PA level.
AI Attribution
No native AI attribution support. PREMIS eventDetail and eventAgent fields could document AI processing actions by convention.
Substantiation
Archivematica generates structured PREMIS event records and METS packages documenting the full preservation workflow. Widely supported by repository systems.
Interoperability
AGPL-3.0. Widely implemented in institutional preservation workflows. Integrates with DSpace, Fedora, and other repository systems.
SynthID is Google DeepMind's imperceptible watermarking tool for AI-generated images, audio, text, and video. Embeds watermarks directly into content pixels/samples at generation time. Detection requires access to the SynthID detection API. No C2PA support. Operates independently of the C2PA manifest store.
TCR4CAP Comments
Dimension
Observation
Awareness
SynthID is a published, deployed watermarking system from Google DeepMind. Widely discussed in AI provenance contexts.
Tamper Evidence
Imperceptible watermarks are embedded in content pixels/samples and are resistant to common image processing operations. Detection requires access to the SynthID API.
Binding
The watermark is embedded directly in the content signal. Binding is content-level and survives format conversion and metadata stripping.
AI Attribution
SynthID is purpose-built for AI-generated content attribution and embeds AI generation provenance directly in the content signal.
Substantiation
Watermark detection confirms AI generation provenance but does not provide a structured, auditable transformation history or external trust anchor.
Interoperability
Proprietary. Detection requires access to the SynthID API. No interoperability with C2PA or other open provenance standards.
National Archives UK file format registry. Provides PUID (PRONOM Unique Identifier) identifiers used by Siegfried, FIDO, DROID, and Archivematica for format identification. Maintained by The National Archives with community contributions.
TCR4CAP Comments
Dimension
Observation
Awareness
PRONOM is the authoritative file format registry for digital preservation. Widely used as the identification authority in institutional workflows.
Tamper Evidence
Tamper-evidence is out of scope.
Binding
Binding is out of scope.
AI Attribution
AI attribution is out of scope.
Substantiation
PRONOM provides authoritative, citable format identifiers (PUIDs) used across digipres tools and policies.
Interoperability
Open Government Licence. Widely implemented across digipres tools and systems. PUIDs are a de facto standard for format identification.
yt-dlp is a command-line audio/video downloader that supports thousands of websites. It downloads media from web platforms and can embed metadata via FFmpeg post-processing. yt-dlp has no C2PA awareness and does not preserve C2PA manifests during download or re-encoding. When re-encoding is performed (e.g. format conversion or metadata embedding), embedded C2PA data generally does not survive (as per ffmpeg remuxing defaults). Direct downloads without re-encoding may preserve embedded C2PA if the source format and container are retained byte-for-byte.
TCR4CAP Comments
Dimension
Observation
Awareness
yt-dlp has no awareness of C2PA or Content Credentials. It downloads media files and can embed general metadata (title, uploader, upload date, description) via FFmpeg, but does not detect, parse, or preserve C2PA manifests. Source-platform metadata such as YouTube AI disclosure labels is not captured as structured CAP data.
Tamper Evidence
No tamper-evidence capabilities. yt-dlp does not generate or verify fixity values. Downloads are byte-for-byte when no re-encoding occurs, but re-encoding via FFmpeg strips embedded C2PA and modifies the file, breaking any existing tamper-evidence chain.
Binding
No binding mechanism. Metadata embedded by yt-dlp (via --embed-metadata) is written into standard metadata containers (e.g. MP4 atoms, Matroska tags) with no cryptographic binding to content. Any pre-existing C2PA hard binding is lost if re-encoding occurs.
AI Attribution
No AI attribution support. yt-dlp does not detect or preserve AI provenance metadata from source platforms. YouTube AI disclosure labels and C2PA AI attribution assertions are not captured.
Substantiation
No provenance chain preservation. yt-dlp does not record or append its own download actions to a chain of custody. The --embed-info-json option can write a sidecar JSON file with download metadata (URL, extractor, timestamp), but this is informal and not structured CAP data. The relationship between the info.json sidecar and the media file is not maintained by any binding mechanism.
Interoperability
Open source (Unlicense). Cross-platform. Relies on FFmpeg for post-processing, inheriting FFmpeg's format support limitations regarding C2PA preservation.
rsync is an open source file synchronization and transfer tool that copies files between systems using a delta-transfer algorithm. rsync transfers files byte-for-byte, so existing, embedded CAP metadata within file structures is preserved. However, rsync has no CAP awareness and does not verify or validate metadata after transfer. Extended attributes are preserved only with the explicit -X/--xattrs flag; the default -a archive mode does not include xattrs.
TCR4CAP Comments
Dimension
Observation
Awareness
rsync has no awareness of CAP metadata. It treats files as opaque byte streams. Embedded CAP data survives transfer because rsync preserves file content exactly, but rsync cannot detect, report, or validate the presence of CAP metadata. Institutions must use separate tools to verify CAP data integrity before and after transfer.
Tamper Evidence
rsync uses checksums internally for both its delta-transfer algorithm and its automatic post-transfer whole-file verification, but does not output or persist these checksums as a fixity record. The --checksum (-c) flag changes rsync's file comparison method from size-and-time to a 128-bit checksum, but this is for internal transfer decisions and is not reported to the user. File-level fixity must be computed separately (e.g. with bagit, md5sum, sha256sum, etc) before and after transfer to create a persistent tamper-evidence record.
Binding
No binding mechanism. rsync does not create or verify any binding between metadata and content. Embedded C2PA hard binding is preserved structurally (since the file is transferred byte-for-byte), but rsync cannot report whether the binding is intact. Sidecar relationships (e.g. .c2pa, .xmp, or PREMIS XML files paired with media files) are not tracked or maintained by rsync; both files must be transferred explicitly and their association managed by the institution.
AI Attribution
No AI attribution support. rsync does not interact with or preserve AI provenance metadata beyond preserving the file bytes that contain it.
Substantiation
rsync does not natively record or append transfer actions to a structured chain of custody. However, the --log-file option can log transfer actions (source, destination, filenames, timestamps, itemized changes) to a file, and --log-file-format allows customization of the log output. This log can serve as an informal provenance record documenting where files came from and when they were transferred, though it is not structured CAP data. Institutions should integrate rsync logs into formal provenance systems (e.g. PREMIS events) for transfer documentation.
Interoperability
Open source (GPL-3.0). Universally available on Linux, macOS, and Unix-like systems. Widely used in digital preservation workflows for file transfer and synchronization. The -aAX flag combination preserves permissions, ownership, timestamps, ACLs, and extended attributes, but awareness of these flags and their CAP implications is the institution's responsibility.