WebVerify
GitHubSponsor
Search…
WebVerify
How It Works
Signing Web Pages
Linking to Signed Web Pages
Verifying Authors
Examples
Web Extension
Installation
Development
Special Thanks
Powered By GitBook
Linking to Signed Web Pages
Links enforce authorship.
To ensure a link to a web page is signed by a specific author, assign the link a key using a <meta> tag.
<meta name="webverify" content="https://your.domain/* 2020-11-25T00:00:00.000Z AKEY1ID123" />
  • name must be webverify
  • content must be one of:
    • [url_prefix] [verify_date] [key_id]
    • [url_prefix] [key_id]
  • url_prefix must end in a *.
  • key_id must be a 16-character long Key ID.
  • verify_date must be in ISO 8601 date and time format.
You can use multiple tags to match multiple links. The first key_id of the first url_prefix that matches will be enforced.
The verify_date is used for archive lookups if the author of the linked web page fails to match. It should be the date you last verified the authorship of the pages under the url_prefix.

Example

<meta name="webverify" content="https://your.domain/* 2020-11-25T00:00:00.000Z AKEY1ID123" />
<meta name="webverify" content="https://example.com/users/bob* BKEY2ID567" />
<meta name="webverify" content="https://example.com/* CKEY3ID890" />
In the above example https://example.com/users/bob/timeline will match BKEY2ID567 whereas https://example.com/home will match CKEY3ID890.
The redirect page shown when a page isn't signed by the expected author.

Automation

Generating <meta> tags can be automated by scripting the following:
  1. 1.
    Find all the links on the web page.
  2. 2.
    Fetch each page, verify the signature and extract the key_id from it.
  3. 3.
    Assign the current date and time as verify_date
  4. 4.
    Assign the link as url_prefix
Once initially fetched, <meta> data should not be automatically changed. If your automation detects a key_id change, ensure any new authors are still valid and verified.

Archives

To ensure pages have valid archives to fall back to for the given date, make sure it's saved in the Internet Archive.
How It Works - Previous
Signing Web Pages
Next - How It Works
Verifying Authors
Last modified 2mo ago
Copy link
Outline
Example
Automation
Archives