Verify a file

For anyone outside Permafrost — a counterparty, an auditor, a user sent a file. They need the file, and for a salted fingerprint, the default for a file stored encrypted, its salt from you.

Ask, with no credential

No Authorization header.

40-verify.sh

# Verification takes no key: no Authorization header on either call below.
# Anyone holding the bytes can ask whether Permafrost holds provenance.
#
# Verify indexes the STORED hash - the bytes as stored - so the first call
# answers provenance true. Asking with CERT_FINGERPRINT legitimately answers
# provenance false: that is what the certificate names, not what storage
# indexes.

curl -sS -m 60 "$HOST/v1/api/verify?hash=$STORED_HASH"
echo

curl -sS -m 60 "$HOST/v1/api/verify?hash=$CERT_FINGERPRINT"
echo

Pass the hash as 64 hex characters (shasum -a 256 <file> for a plaintext fingerprint). A salted fingerprint isn’t found by the file’s own hash: check it with the verifier, the file and its salt. When provenance is held:

{
  "hash": "…",
  "provenance": true,
  "nft_id": "0x…",
  "content_hash": "…",
  "certified": true,
  "explorer_url": "https://…/object/0x…"
}

nft_id is the receipt’s id on Sui (the receipt is an object there). certified is true once on Walrus.

What the verdict says, and what it doesn’t

• true: these exact bytes were stored and recorded witnessed.
• false: no record, or the wrong hash — an encrypted custody object is recorded by its stored hash.
• Not said: who stored it, or whether it’s still retrievable (Retention).

Open the receipt on Sui

Follow explorer_url or paste nft_id into any Sui explorer; no account or wallet needed. The receipt carries:

• the fingerprint and its kind, so anyone with the file knows what to compute;
• size and file count;
• whether the stored bytes were encrypted;
• the previous receipt, for a new version;
• the locator of what it covers on Walrus (Leaving).

Receipts can’t be transferred or changed: they stay with what they attest, as written. verifiable

Network	Manifest package	Incineration package
testnet	0xe920e99e6a264b8b00c3d7e2824b9c3db624bccedc26e25b5095fd41ba8cc484	0x7beda97acf07c60d9839a64166b59d10e3cdc3b42fa955fcc8dd23049910ac44

Check it with the verifier

pf-verify, provided at onboarding, checks a receipt from Sui alone, with no call to the deployment verifiable:

pf-verify receipt <receipt id> --rpc <a Sui gRPC url> [--file <path>] [--salt <hex>]

Without --file it checks the receipt on its own. Add --file <path> to match a file you hold, and --salt <hex> for a salted fingerprint. Exit 0 is valid, 1 invalid, 3 the chain or the public copy couldn’t be read.

Check an incineration certificate

A deleted file leaves a certificate instead of a receipt. Check it with the published verifier:

pf-verify custody <certificate id> --deployment <the deployment's URL> --rpc <a Sui gRPC url>

Name the operator yourself with --attester <address> instead of --deployment; one of the two is required. Add --file <path> --salt <hex> to match a file you hold to the certificate. Exit 0 is valid, 1 invalid, 3 the chain couldn’t be read.

The certificate shows that the named operator attested the key’s destruction at that epoch (a Sui epoch, not a time) and names the content verifiable. The destruction itself is the operator’s word our statement. It doesn’t show that every copy is gone: Walrus keeps the ciphertext until its epochs end. Custody and deletion