Researchers from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Hacker Factor and the US National Security Agency posted a security analysis of the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) system to the Cryptology ePrint Archive on 23 April 2026.[1] The 11 authors examined version 2.2 of the C2PA specification, selected claim validators and version 0.1 of the conformance program. They say they performed the first formal-methods analysis of C2PA's core protocols.[1]
The authors report that the specification and conforming implementations achieve neither C2PA's claimed security goals nor further goals they consider essential.[1] Their formal analysis found that the tools that sign provenance claims and the validators that check them disagree on a signature's trusted timestamp, so timestamps can be altered.[1]
A companion arXiv summary posted on 27 April gives examples. After Nikon revoked a camera's signing certificate in November 2025, one conforming validator still reported a signature made with it as valid. Another reported it as invalid, and neither reported the revocation.[2] In another example, the authors changed the location data that a Pixel 10 Pro stores in an exclusion range, a part of the file the signature does not cover. A conforming validator did not detect the change.[2]
According to the authors, the conformance program certifies products largely on self-reported compliance, without examining a product's functionality or source code.[2] The C2PA launched the program in mid-2025.[4] It says the program helps ensure that any product displaying a Content Credential badge handles authenticity data accurately.[3]
The authors say the Pixel 10 Pro and version 2.3 of the specification adopted some of their proposed fixes, but version 2.4, from April 2026, does not address their concerns.[1, 2] They conclude that C2PA should not yet be relied on for high-stakes uses such as financial disclosures, journalism or legal evidence.[2]
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