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Model signing

By Updated

Signing a model's files at build: a manifest lists every file with its cryptographic digest and a detached signature covers the manifest, so any changed file fails verification. The OpenSSF Model Signing specification uses the Sigstore bundle format and supports keyless signing, private PKI, self-signed certificates or bare keys 1. Serving verifies the signature before it loads a model.

Developed in
ch. 14, Reproducibility and linked versioning
ch. 05, Pattern: Model Artefact Integrity
Chapters
ch. 05, Patterns · ch. 14, Development · ch. 15, Deployment
Contrast with
Build provenance (SLSA)
Source
1 numbered reference, listed below

Where it is used

The term is not used under this name in running prose; the sections listed under "Developed in" treat it.

Patterns that use this term

One pattern page uses the term.

  • Safetensors

    A file format for storing a model's tensors safely, as opposed to Python pickle, whose loading can run arbitrary code and which the Python documentation calls…

Sources

  1. [1] "An Introduction to the OpenSSF Model Signing (OMS) Specification" (detached signature over a manifest of file hashes; Sigstore bundle format; PKI-agnostic: private PKI, self-signed certificates, bare keys, keyless Sigstore). OpenSSF. 2025-06-25. https://openssf.org/blog/2025/06/25/an-introduction-to-the-openssf-model-signing-oms-specification/ (verified: primary)

Definitions of legal terms paraphrase the cited text, which governs. Dated statements are as of .

Cite this term

García Aibar, J. (2026). Model signing. In AI Governance Engineering: The Thesis & Body of Knowledge (v0.5.0), Glossary. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22956197. https://aigovernanceengineer.com/glossary/model-signing. CC BY 4.0

BibTeX

@misc{aige2026modelsigning,
  author  = {Jorge García Aibar},
  title   = {{Model signing}},
  note    = {Glossary, AI Governance Engineering: The Thesis \& Body of Knowledge, version 0.5.0},
  year    = {2026},
  doi     = {10.5281/zenodo.22956197},
  url     = {https://aigovernanceengineer.com/glossary/model-signing}
}