**Notary v2: Mastering OCI Image Signing Standards for Secure Container Supply Chains** guides readers through the rapidly evolving world of container image security, beginning with the core principles of threat modeling, cryptographic integrity, and secure software supply chain design. It explains the drivers behind image signing, including regulatory pressure, compliance requirements, and the Open Container Initiative’s role in establishing common standards for trustworthy cloud-native ecosystems. With clear context on the history and purpose of signing technologies, the book builds a strong foundation for understanding why secure artifact verification is now essential to modern container operations. The heart of the book explores the architecture and protocol design of Notary v2 in depth, detailing its trust models, signature representation, extensibility, and relationship to the OCI Image Signing Specification. Readers will gain practical insight into signature payloads, multi-platform images, policy enforcement, and the mechanics of validating artifacts across diverse deployment environments. The book also examines key management and delegation strategies, including integration with hardware security modules and cloud KMS solutions, offering guidance for organizations that need robust and scalable trust workflows. Designed for practical adoption, the book covers real-world implementation patterns for distributing and verifying signatures in both connected and air-gapped environments, integrating signing into DevOps pipelines, and defending against advanced supply chain attacks. It includes migration guidance from earlier standards, a survey of ecosystem tooling, and lessons learned from operational case studies. The final chapters look ahead to emerging directions such as attestations, SBOM integration, decentralized trust models, and the growing collaboration between standards bodies and open source communities, positioning readers to lead in the future of artifact security and governance.
