Security Baseline SpecificationSecurityBaseline25.12ONVIF™www.onvif.orgDecember, 20252008-2025ONVIF™ All rights reserved.Recipients of this document may copy, distribute, publish, or display this document so
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THE CORPORATION.25.12Dec-2025Hans BuschFirst releaseScopeThis document defines the security baseline for ONVIF specifications. Its content is based on state-of-the-art technology as published by NIST or BSI.Note that any updates to this specification require a review of implications on technical, profile, and addon specifications.
Publication of updates to this document shall be synchronized with ONVIF Technical and Technical Service Committees.Normative ReferencesNIST FIPS 180-4 Secure Hash Standard (SHS)<> NIST FIPS 186-5 Digital Signature Standard (DSS) - February 3, 2023<>BSI – Technical Guideline, Cryptographic Mechanisms: Recommendations and Key Length- January 31, 2025<>RFC 4055 - Additional Algorithms and Identifiers for RSA Cryptography for use in the Internet X.509 Public Key Infrastructure Certificate and Certificate Revocation List (CRL) Profile<>RFC 4868 - Using HMAC-SHA-256, HMAC-SHA-384, and HMAC-SHA-512 with IPsec<>RFC 5116 - An Interface and Algorithms for Authenticated Encryption<>RFC 5280 Internet X.509 Public Key Infrastructure Certificate and Certificate
Revocation List (CRL) Profile<http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc5280.txt>RFC 5480 - Elliptic Curve Cryptography Subject Public Key Information<>RFC 5758 - Internet X.509 Public Key Infrastructure: Additional Algorithms and Identifiers for DSA and ECDSA<>RFC 5869 - HMAC-based Extract-and-Expand Key Derivation Function (HKDF)<>RFC 7292 - PKCS #12: Personal Information Exchange Syntax v1.1<>RFC 7714 - AES-GCM Authenticated Encryption in the Secure Real-time Transport Protocol (SRTP)<>RFC 7518 - JSON Web Algorithms (JWA)<>RFC 7519 - JSON Web Token (JWT)<>RFC 8017 - PKCS #1: RSA Cryptography Specifications Version 2.2<>RFC 8018 - PKCS #5: Password-Based Cryptography Specification Version 2.1<>RFC 8439 - ChaCha20 and Poly1305 for IETF Protocols<>RFC 9579 - Use of Password-Based Message Authentication Code 1 (PBMAC1) in PKCS #12 Syntax<>ANSI X9.62 - Public Key Cryptography for the Financial Services Industry: The Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA)<>NIST Special Publication 800-38A - Recommendation for Block Cipher Modes of Operation: Methods and Techniques<>Terms and DefinitionsAsymmetric EncryptionEncryption using a public and private key pair.HashA method of creating a unique fingerprint of a large data set.SignatureA hash signed with a private key that can be verified using the corresponding public key.Public Key CryptographyCryptographic operations using a key pair (public and private key), including encryption, key agreement, and digital signatures.OverviewThe content of this document is based on state-of-the-art technology as published by the American institute NIST and the German department BSI.
Note that any updates to this specification require a review of implications on technical, profile, and addon specifications.
Publication of updates shall be synchronized with ONVIF Technical and Technical Service Committee.The tables in this document define cryptographic algorithms and identifiers used by ONVIF specifications.
In all cases, the applicable profile or add-on specification is the authoritative source of conformance obligations.Hash FunctionsThis chapter defines the hash functions and their corresponding algorithm OIDs that
devices shall support when implementing hash-based operations.
Symmetric EncryptionThe following table specifies the symmetric encryption algorithms that a device shall
support when implementing symmetric encryption operations.
Public Key CryptographyAsymmetric Key SchemesThe following table specifies the requirements for public key encryption and key
agreement schemes that a product shall support when implementing public key cryptography.
Items marked with asterisk relate to public key usage in order to e.g. support signature
verification. Digital SignaturesThis section defines the signature schemes and their corresponding algorithm OIDs that
devices shall support when implementing digital signatures. The listed algorithm OIDs are
applicable to certificate signatures as well as other cryptographic operations such as media
signing and general-purpose digital signatures. The applicable hash algorithms are defined
in .
*Note: RSA signatures using PKCS#1 v1.5 padding are marked as Required for baseline conformance due to their widespread use in existing ONVIF specifications and implementations, particularly for certificate signatures. However, implementers are encouraged to use other required alternatives from the table for new implementations and signatures, as it provides stronger security posture.Key ManagementKey Derivation FunctionsThis section defines the key derivation functions that products shall support when
implementing key derivation.
Private Key ProtectionThis section defines the algorithms used to protect private keys during transit between key generation to key upload.
PBKDF2 (defined in ) is used to derive the encryption key from
a password, and AES-CBC (defined in ) is used to wrap
the private key material in PKCS#12 format (RFC 7292).
Note that this covers PKCS#12
key transport; device-internal at-rest key storage may use stronger direct encryption
as required by the applicable profile specification.Authentication and AuthorizationJSON Web Token (JWT)This section specifies the requirements for JWT signature algorithms used in ONVIF
client authorization flows. The signature algorithms listed below depend on the digital
signature schemes defined in and the hash functions defined in
.
TLS Cipher Reference (Informative)This annex presents an informative guide to a small subset of cipher suites selected as part of the ONVIF standard.The following small subset of ciphers covering TLS 1.2 / 1.3 are based on the baseline defined in this document and match common practice by Cloudflare, Mozilla, and ciphersuite.info.While TLS 1.2 and 1.3 are both currently viable, TLS 1.3 is recommended. Note that the table is not ordered by cipher strength.
Hybrid Public Key Encryption (Informative)This section lists the HPKE encryption baseline algorithms and provides references to the relevant IANA registry entries. The listed algorithms map to the definitions in the normative sections above.
Secure Streaming using SRTP (Informative)This section lists the security baseline algorithms for SRTP streaming and provides references to the relevant IANA registry entries. The listed algorithms map to the definitions in the normative sections above.
Baseline Usage by ONVIF SpecificationsThe following table provides an informative mapping between ONVIF security use cases and
the sections of this specification that define the required cryptographic primitives.
Implementers should consult the referenced normative sections in conjunction with the
corresponding ONVIF specification for each use case.
Usecase to cryptographic baseline mappingONVIF Use CaseONVIF SpecificationRequired SectionsInformative AnnexTLS mutual authenticationSecurity ServiceAsymmetric Key Schemes, Digital Signatures, Hash Functions, Symmetric EncryptionAnnex A — TLS Cipher ReferenceX.509 certificate management and PKISecurity ServiceAsymmetric Key Schemes, Digital Signatures, Hash Functions, Private Key Protection—JWT client authorizationSecurity ServiceJSON Web Token (JWT), Digital Signatures, Hash Functions—Media signingMedia SigningDigital Signatures, Hash Functions—Secure streaming (SRTP)StreamingSymmetric EncryptionAnnex C — Secure Streaming using SRTPRecording and data-at-rest encryptionRecording ControlSymmetric Encryption, Key Derivation Functions—Secure key encapsulation (HPKE)VariousAsymmetric Key Schemes, Key Derivation Functions, Symmetric EncryptionAnnex B — Hybrid Public Key Encryption