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.1
<meta name="webverify" content="https://your.domain/* 2020-11-25T00:00:00.000Z AKEY1ID123" />
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namemust bewebverifycontentmust be one of:[url_prefix] [verify_date] [key_id][url_prefix] [key_id]
url_prefixmust end in a*.key_idmust be a 16-character long Key ID.
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
1
<meta name="webverify" content="https://your.domain/* 2020-11-25T00:00:00.000Z AKEY1ID123" />
2
<meta name="webverify" content="https://example.com/users/bob* BKEY2ID567" />
3
<meta name="webverify" content="https://example.com/* CKEY3ID890" />
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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.Find all the links on the web page.
- 2.Fetch each page, verify the signature and extract the
key_idfrom it. - 3.Assign the current date and time as
verify_date - 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.
Last modified 1mo ago
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