Apple debuts cryptographic photo authentication with iPhone 18 Pro
Apple revealed Apple Reference Image, a camera feature on the iPhone 18 Pro that signs captured pixel data and metadata to produce a tamper-evident 'digital negative' processed in Private Cloud Compute. The system binds the camera sensor to the Secure Enclave, signs data at capture, timestamps it, and uses cryptographic verification (RSA-3072 and ML-DSA-87) with a revocation mechanism to flag compromised sensors, enabling verifiable authenticity for photos.