A Decentralized Approach for Verifying the Integrity of Web Resources

Abstract

"In the current digital age, the issue of digital resource authenticity has become one of increasing importance. This is due, in part to our reliance on the internet for information and resources as well as increasingly elaborate schemes by attackers to inject malicious code into normally trust-worthy websites. Current resource integrity verification mechanisms that check the integrity of scripts, images and other such content served to end-users are significantly limited in terms of their scalability and ease of use. Thus, these methods are rarely adopted by web developers and there remains a risk of visitors being served malicious resources.

To address this issue, the following dissertation puts forth a decentralized resource verification mechanism. The verification mechanism functions without the need for any trusted third parties. It achieves this by using a combination of decentralized identifiers, verifiable credentials and decentralized storage networks to authenticate the resources. Furthermore, this solution is designed to be easily integrated by web developers and allows them to make sure the resources delivered to their end-users are authentic without expending a great deal of effort.

Initial test results conducted with the proof of concept indicate that the solution can effectively assess the authenticity of resources and prevent the delivery of tampered content without relying on third parties. The solution’s viability as an easily integrated alternative to traditional resource verification approaches shows promise."