Secure Digital Evidence Verification System Using Digital Signatures

The increasing use of digital images as evidence in legal, forensic, and organizational applications has raised significant concerns regarding image authenticity and integrity. Modern image editing tools make it easy to manipulate digital evidence, creating the need for a secure and reliable verification system. This paper presents a Secure Digital Evidence Verification System using Digital Signature, a web-based platform designed to ensure the authenticity, integrity, and traceability of digital image evidence throughout its lifecycle. The proposed system integrates Digital Signatures, Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT)-based invisible watermarking, and SHA-256 cryptographic hashing to provide a multi-layered security framework. During the image sealing process, a unique Submission ID is invisibly embedded into the image using DWT watermarking, while a digital signature is generated and securely stored in both the image metadata and the centralized database. A SHA-256 hash of the sealed image is also generated and stored to detect any unauthorized modifications. The system implements role-based access control, enabling General Public users to submit evidence, Public Authorities to verify authenticity, and Administrators to manage users, approvals, and audit logs.