# Forensic Identity Attestation
**Domain:** Digital Identity / Forensics / Continuity
**Doc Type:** Method Node
**Classification:** Lineage-Evidence Method
**Maturity:** Developed
**Related:** [[wiki/Cryptographic Succession|Cryptographic Succession]], [[wiki/Proof of Descent|Proof of Descent]], [[wiki/Continuity Provenance|Continuity Provenance]]
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## Purpose
**Forensic Identity Attestation** is a structured evidence package supporting a claim that a digital state, reconstruction or continuant descends from a specified source under specified authority. It combines identity proofing, signed capture records, content hashes, timestamps, custody events, transformation manifests and independent verification.
## Minimum Evidence Chain
- proofing of the source and authorized actors at stated assurance levels;
- binding between captured material and a signed manifest;
- append-only custody and transformation records;
- reproducible integrity checks and independent verification;
- disclosure of missing intervals, redactions, migrations and compromised keys;
- revocation and supersession mechanisms.
## Limit
Cryptography can show that bytes match a commitment, that a key signed a statement and that a manifest has not been altered since signing. It cannot prove that the signer was honest, that omitted state was irrelevant, that a model is conscious or that the claimant is numerically identical to the source. Attestation establishes an evidence chain, not metaphysical closure.
## Sources
- [NIST SP 800-63A-4 — Identity Proofing and Enrollment](https://pages.nist.gov/800-63-4/sp800-63a.html)
- [C2PA Technical Specifications](https://spec.c2pa.org/)
## See Also
[[wiki/Adversarial Provenance|Adversarial Provenance]] · [[wiki/Root of Trust Succession|Root of Trust Succession]] · [[wiki/Verification of Continuity Claims|Verification of Continuity Claims]]