certvrunt

certvrunt is a term used in digital security to denote a portable framework for validating software certificates and their provenance across distributed systems. It combines ideas from public key infrastructure, certificate transparency, and revocation mechanisms to provide auditable, offline- and online-capable verification of credentials.

The framework envisions bundle structures: a primary X.509-like certificate identifying the software publisher, a verification manifest detailing valid signatures and hash values, and a trusted root store that can be customized per device or organization. certvrunt emphasizes verifiability through append-only logs and cryptographic proofs.

Operation: When software is distributed, the recipient checks the certvrunt bundle; the signature is validated against the public key in the root store; the manifest is checked for the expected hash; revocation information is consulted if present; and a trust path is computed.

Differences: Unlike traditional PKI, certvrunt aims to enable cross-domain verification with portable trust anchors and auditable provenance; it supports offline validation because the manifest and root store can be distributed with the software.

Status and reception: certvrunt originated in security research discussions and some academic proposals; as of now there is no single standard widely adopted; implementations remain experimental, with several prototypical libraries and documentation in early-stage projects.

See also: Certificate transparency, Public key infrastructure, Digital signature, Software supply chain security.