Programmer and encryption expert Dmitry Sklyarov has found a vulnerability in Canon's OSK-E3 system for ensuring that photos such as those used in police evidence gathering have not been tampered with.
The result is that Sklyarov's company, ElcomSoft, can create doctored photos that the technology believes to be authentic. To illustrate its point, the company has released a number of faked photos that it says have passed the Canon integrity checks.
ElcomSoft has produced doctored photos that it says can pass Canon integrity checks. Photo credit: ElcomSoft
"The vulnerability discovered by ElcomSoft questions the authenticity of all Canon-signed photographic evidence and published photos, and effectively proves the entire Canon Original Data Security system useless," the company said in a statement. Canon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
For more on this ZDNet UK-selected story, see Canon camera encryption cracked on CNET News.
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Talkback
Anything digitally created can be cracked somehow. Why not just use 35mm film for critical evidence photography and keep the negatives somewhere safe?
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