Document Authentication

The Document Authentication V1 module validates the authenticity of a submitted identity document by running a series of forensic checks against the document image. It determines whether the document is genuine or shows signs of forgery or reproduction, and returns the result as a risk level (low, medium, or high) that reflects how strictly the document was evaluated.

Capabilities

The module returns four capabilities: three integer-based check failure counts and one overall authentication result.

Check failure counts

The module categorises the individual forensic checks it runs into three severity tiers. For each tier, it counts how many checks failed. These counts explain the severity distribution of failures behind the overall authentication result, which helps you decide whether to reject, escalate to manual review, or accept with conditions.

Number of significant checks failed

The number of high-severity authentication checks that failed. Significant checks test the most critical security features of a document, such as template structure, key security elements, and data consistency between the visual zone and machine-readable zone (MRZ). A failure in a significant check is a strong indicator of a forged, counterfeit, or fundamentally altered document.

Detail	Description
Type	Integer
Range	0–100
Default	0

A value greater than 0 indicates serious authenticity concerns. Even a single significant failure typically warrants rejection or manual forensic review.

Number of moderate checks failed

The number of medium-severity authentication checks that failed. Moderate checks test secondary security features and data consistency elements that contribute to overall document confidence but are less definitive than significant checks. Failures may indicate lower-quality forgeries, minor inconsistencies, or legitimate but unusual document variations.

Detail	Description
Type	Integer
Range	0–100
Default	0

A small number of moderate failures may occur on legitimate documents, particularly older documents, documents from countries with fewer security features, or documents captured under poor imaging conditions. The count should be interpreted alongside the overall authentication result.

Number of insignificant checks failed

The number of low-severity authentication checks that failed. Insignificant checks test minor features that have limited impact on the overall authenticity determination. Failures in these checks are common on legitimate documents and are unlikely to indicate fraud on their own.

Detail	Description
Type	Integer
Range	0–100
Default	0

These failures are typically informational. They may be useful for audit purposes or for organisations with very strict acceptance criteria, but they rarely warrant rejection on their own.

Document authentication result

This capability returns the overall outcome of the document’s authenticity checks. It uses the same risk-level model as V2, where the result code reflects the residual risk level after the document has been evaluated.

The key concept: a document that passes under strict (high-sensitivity) checks carries low residual risk, while a document that passes under relaxed (low-sensitivity) checks carries higher residual risk. The result code names reflect this residual risk, not the sensitivity setting.

Code	Label	Meaning
lowRiskPass	Passed with low risk	The document passed authentication under the strictest checks. Residual fraud risk is low. This is the strongest positive result.
mediumRiskPass	Passed with medium risk	The document passed authentication under a moderate set of checks. Residual fraud risk is moderate.
highRiskPass	Passed with high risk	The document passed authentication under the most relaxed checks. Residual fraud risk is higher. Consider combining this result with additional verification steps.
failed	Failed authentication	The document failed authentication checks entirely. It could not be validated as genuine. Possible causes include: the document does not match any known template, security features are missing or incorrect, data fields are inconsistent, or the document appears to be a reproduction.

Number of significant checks failed

A count of the number of significant checks that failed authentication

Detail	Description
Type	Integer
Range	0–100
Default	0

Number of moderate checks failed

A count of the number of moderate checks that failed authentication.

Detail	Description
Type	Integer
Range	0–100
Default	0

Number of insignificant checks failed

A count of the number of insignificant checks that failed authentication.

Detail	Description
Type	Integer
Range	0–100
Default	0

Document tampering result

Evaluates whether the document has been altered after issuance. Tampering checks look for signs of post-production modification, such as digitally edited text or photographs, spliced images, pixel-level inconsistencies around data fields, or evidence of photo manipulation software.

Value	Description
HIGH_RISK_PASS	Passed at Low Sensitivity
MEDIUM_RISK_PASS	Passed at Medium Sensitivity
LOW_RISK_PASS	Passed at High Sensitivity
FAILED	Caution

Default outcomes

The outcome logic maps directly from the authentication result. Each result code produces a corresponding outcome. Unlike V2, which combines authentication and tamper detection results to determine the outcome, V1 uses only the single authentication result capability.

Outcome	Condition	Description
Low Risk	Authentication result includes lowRiskPass	The document passed under the strictest forensic checks. This is the highest-confidence positive outcome.
Medium Risk	Authentication result includes mediumRiskPass	The document passed under a moderate set of checks. Further review may be warranted depending on the organisation’s risk tolerance.
High Risk	Authentication result includes highRiskPass	The document passed under the most relaxed criteria. Residual risk is elevated. Organisations with strict fraud prevention requirements may want to route this outcome to manual review.
Failed	Authentication result includes failed	The document could not be verified as genuine. This outcome typically routes to rejection or escalation for manual forensic review.
ERROR	Default (no conditions matched)	An unexpected error occurred during processing.
Caution	Document Authentication Result isAnyOf FAILED and Document Tampering Result isAnyOf FAILED	—

This module does not require its own input payload. It runs off of the document images already captured by the Document Classification module earlier in the journey.

Sample response

The following is a sample response for a successfully authenticated document.

JSON

{
  "response": {
    "advice": {
      "significantChecksFailed": 0,
      "moderateChecksFailed": 0,
      "insignificantChecksFailed": 0,
      "authenticationResult": "lowRiskPass"
    },
    "outcome": "Low Risk"
  }
}

Input payload

The following is a sample payload used to submit data to the Document authentication V1 module for processing.

JSON

{
  "context": {
    "subject": {
      "documents": [],
      "identity": {}
    }
  }
}

Field	Required	Description
PrimaryDocument/classification	Yes	[Describe.]

Document authentication V1

Capabilities

Input payload

The following is a sample payload used to submit data to the Document authentication V1 module for processing.

JSON

{
  "context": {
    "subject": {
      "documents": [],
      "identity": {}
    }
  }
}

Field	Required	Description
PrimaryDocument/classification	Yes	[Describe.]

Sample response

The following is a sample response returned by the module.

JSON

{
  "response": {
    "advice": {
      "authenticationResult": "lowRiskPass",
      "insignificantChecksFailed": 0,
      "moderateChecksFailed": 0,
      "significantChecksFailed": 0
    },
    "outcome": "Low Risk"
  }
}

Document authentication result

Returns the overall outcome of the document’s authenticity checks - whether the document matches a known genuine template and whether its structural features (layout, fonts, security elements, data consistency) are consistent with an authentic document of that type.

Value	Description
lowRiskPass	Passed with Low Risk
mediumRiskPass	Passed with Medium Risk
highRiskPass	Passed with High Risk
failed	Failed Authentication

Number of insignificant checks failed

A count of the number of insignificant checks that failed authentication.

Detail	Description
Type	Integer
Range	0–100
Default	0

Number of moderate checks failed

A count of the number of moderate checks that failed authentication.

Detail	Description
Type	Integer
Range	0–100
Default	0

Number of significant checks failed

A count of the number of significant checks that failed authentication

Detail	Description
Type	Integer
Range	0–100
Default	0

Document Authentication V2

Capabilities

Input payload

The following is a sample payload used to submit data to the Document Authentication V2 module for processing.

JSON

{
  "context": {
    "subject": {
      "documents": [],
      "identity": {}
    }
  }
}

Field	Required	Description
PrimaryDocument/classification	Yes	[Describe.]
PrimaryDocument/extraction	Yes	[Describe.]

Sample response

The following is a sample response returned by the module.

JSON

{
  "response": {
    "advice": {
      "authenticationResult": [
        "FAILED"
      ],
      "tamperResult": [
        "HIGH_RISK_PASS",
        "MEDIUM_RISK_PASS",
        "LOW_RISK_PASS"
      ]
    },
    "outcome": "Medium Risk"
  }
}

Document tampering result

Evaluates whether the document has been altered after issuance. Tampering checks look for signs of post-production modification, such as digitally edited text or photographs, spliced images, pixel-level inconsistencies around data fields, or evidence of photo manipulation software.

Value	Description
HIGH_RISK_PASS	Passed at Low Sensitivity
MEDIUM_RISK_PASS	Passed at Medium Sensitivity
LOW_RISK_PASS	Passed at High Sensitivity
FAILED	Caution

Document authentication result

Returns the overall outcome of the document’s authenticity checks. It evaluates whether the document matches a known genuine template and whether its structural features, such as layout, fonts, security elements, and data consistency, are consistent with an authentic document of that type.

Value	Description
HIGH_RISK_PASS	Passed at Low Sensitivity
MEDIUM_RISK_PASS	Passed at Medium Sensitivity
LOW_RISK_PASS	Passed at High Sensitivity
FAILED	Caution