Welcome to our comprehensive knowledge base, where we provide a detailed guide on how to independently verify the certified timestamping of archived emails using RFC3161.

Prerequisites

• • sha256sum and openssl installed
  • To obtain the Archiver CA certificate, follow these simple steps:
    1. Access your Archiver account and navigate to the menu: Archiver > Compliance > Certified Timestamp.
    2. Look for the option labeled “Download CA certificate” and click on it.
    3. Once you click the button, you will instantly receive your Archiver CA certificate in the form of a file named “cert.pem”.
  • Download archive file (zip format) containing email to verify from volumes page: Archiver > Storage > Volume.

Validation steps

1. 1. Upon extracting the archive file contents,(Note:If tenant is encrypted you must use “Tenant encryption key” as extraction parameter), you’ll obtain the following files:
      1. signature (Openssl signature file)
      2. signature.json (hash list of each EML signed)
      3. list of EML files signed
   2. Calculate “signature.json” HASH with sha256, obtaining signature file sha256 hash.
      ex: sha256sum signature.json
   3. Verify signature with command:
      openssl ts -verify -digest SIGNATURE_JSON_HASH_RESULT -sha256 -in SIGNATURE_FILE -CAfile cert.pem

      ex:openssl ts -verify -digest '02e40e87e86c71f22e68cd4213a3f7a4a1ee04de00dcffc94cac549f5ddd714d' -sha256 -in signature -CAfile cert.pem
   4. IF response indicates “Verification: OK” it means that the JSON signature validation has been successfully verified and you can continue with validation procedure.
   5. Calculate EML file hash with sha256, obtaining EML sha256 hash.
      ex: sha256sum 9.eml
   6. Retrieve the EML JSON hash from the signature.json file, where “filename” represent EML file name and “hash” is its related EML hash
      … {
"filename": "9.eml",
"hash": "e38d0fbcdb9ad059ee85f37ee5342ebc2db35cb3cf63a746e98043b6ed4374d0"
}
…
   7. Compare signature.json HASH (step 6) with calculated EML HASH (step 5).
      If two hashes are identical, it indicates a SUCCESSFUL validation of your EML file.