Verify a signed document

Every document signed through this site carries a fingerprint. Drop the signed PDF below and this page computes that fingerprint in your browser (the file itself is never uploaded), then checks it against the record of documents signed here.

What this proves — and what it doesn't

Signed documents carry a digital signature made with a certificate that Seth Ricks issued himself, plus a timestamp from an independent time-stamping authority.

What it proves: the document has not been altered by a single byte since it was signed, and an independent third party — not Seth — confirmed those exact bytes existed at a given moment. Seth cannot backdate a document or quietly edit one after the fact.

What it doesn't prove: Adobe Acrobat will say “signature validity is unknown” when it opens one of these files. That is expected and is not a sign of tampering — it only means no commercial certificate authority vouches for the certificate. Getting the green tick requires a certificate from Adobe's approved list, which costs several hundred dollars a year and must be held on dedicated hardware.

You don't have to take our word for any of this. Open the PDF in Adobe Reader and look at the Signature panel, or run it through the EU DSS validator.

The signing certificate

Public certificate — it contains no secret, and it's what independently checks a signature.

Checking one yourself, if you like:
openssl x509 -in sethricks-signing.crt -noout -fingerprint -sha256