Decentralized Identity Verification System For Forensic Management

Abstract

Digital evidence now plays a major role in criminal investigations, but managing that evidence securely is still a challenge. In many existing systems, records are stored in centralized environments where tracking every action is difficult and unauthorized changes can be hard to detect. When that happens, the reliability of evidence can be questioned during legal proceedings. In this work, we propose a digital forensic evidence management framework that uses decentralized technologies to make evidence handling more dependable. Instead of storing files in a single location, the evidence is encrypted and stored through IPFS, which helps reduce the risk of data loss and unauthorized modification. Every important action performed on the evidence is also recorded on a blockchain using the Proof of Staked Authority consensus method so that investigators can verify the complete history whenever required. To strengthen security further, the XChaCha20 algorithm is used before storage. The system also applies a VGG19based verification method to study printer-related patterns and confirm whether a document is genuine. By bringing together distributed storage, blockchain tracking, encryption, and document verification, the proposed approach offers a practical way to improve the security and trustworthiness of digital forensic evidence.