Digital provenance and C2PA glossary

Which questions belong in this field?

Specify the object and the history you are trying to establish. A final file may have a clear relationship to an earlier ingredient while the ingredient’s own origin remains unknown. That is a supported link with a bounded history, not an authenticated account of everything that came before.

Keep provenance, integrity, authenticity, and attribution separate. Integrity concerns whether covered bytes or assertions match the protected representation. Authenticity concerns a stated claim about what an item is. Attribution connects it to a source at a stated level.

Evidence sources and examination context

Preserve the asset and associated provenance records together. Record the validator and version, the validation output, and the trust policy used to assess a signer. Preserve evidence needed to revisit the result rather than retaining only a screen label.

C2PA defines manifests, assertions, content bindings, and validation rules. Its specification distinguishes validation of assertions from value judgments about those assertions. Read the actual claim and its covered asset before describing what a successful result means. C2PA 2.4 Technical Specification.

Map ingredients and transformations to independently acquired records where possible. W3C PROV supplies vocabulary for derivation relationships. A graph can expose a missing link, but drawing that link does not supply the missing evidence. PROV-DM: The PROV Data Model.

A worked evidence example

Hypothetical example: an image has a valid signed claim describing an edit. The examination can report the validated relationship and the stated editing action. If the original scene is disputed, separate records are needed to assess whether the depicted event occurred.

A later messaging copy has no embedded manifest. Compare the copies and distribution records if available. The missing record may be explained by the handling path; it does not settle whether the original image was generated.

What this evidence can and cannot establish

Provenance can support particular origin and transformation relationships when the records, bindings, and trust assumptions hold. It is especially useful when a report names exactly which assertions were checked.

It cannot guarantee complete history, truthful subject matter, or a person’s identity merely because a signature validates. A signature from an untrusted or misunderstood identity needs careful interpretation. Missing provenance leaves a question open.

Essential terminology

• Provenance — Information about origin, derivation, handling, and transformations, represented through records or assertions whose reliability must be assessed.
• C2PA manifest — A structured provenance record containing a claim, assertions, and related information under the C2PA format.
• Content credentials — Provenance records associated with content, commonly using the C2PA system of manifests and signed assertions.
• C2PA claim — The signed structure connecting specified assertions and other information in a C2PA manifest.
• C2PA ingredient — An input asset represented in a content-provenance workflow.
• Cryptographic signature — A cryptographic mechanism used to verify a signed record under a key and trust model; claim truth and signer identity need separate assessment.
• Transformation history — A documented sequence of operations that changed an object or its representation, such as editing, transcoding, or export.
• Provenance gap — An interval or relationship in an asserted history that is undocumented, inaccessible, unsupported, or unverifiable.

All 45 terms in this evidence field

• AI provenance
• Assertion
• Authenticity
• C2PA
• C2PA claim
• C2PA ingredient
• C2PA manifest
• Canonicalization
• Certificate
• Certificate chain
• Content address
• Content credentials
• Content provenance
• Cryptographic signature
• Custody transfer
• Derivation
• Digital provenance
• Embedded manifest
• Hard binding
• Hash collision
• Integrity
• Manifest
• Origin claim
• PROV activity
• PROV agent
• PROV entity
• Provenance
• Provenance assertion
• Provenance gap
• Provenance graph
• Public key
• Revocation
• SHA-256
• Sidecar file
• Signer
• Signing key
• Soft binding
• Source attribution
• Supply chain provenance
• Timestamp authority
• Transformation history
• Trust anchor
• Trust store
• Trusted timestamp
• Version history

Continue with an examination reference

• provenance
• provenance
• provenance

Citation and editorial context

This is an editorial reference. Source checks are separate from independent expert review; no independent reviewer is recorded.

Examples are hypothetical. See the editorial policy, methodology, and correction process.

Shelley, Jesse (ed.). “Digital provenance and C2PA glossary.” Synthetic Forensics, 1.1.0-glossary-library-1, 2026-10-09. https://syntheticforensics.org/glossary/provenance/ Accessed: add the date you consulted this page.

The complete vocabulary

Browse the full glossary of 300 terms or download the machine-readable vocabulary.

Field assignment is the project’s organizational taxonomy; related evidence can span several fields.