ISO/IEC 42001:2023, AI Management System
ISO/IEC 42001:2023 is the international management-system standard for AI, published December 2023. It is certifiable: an accredited body audits an organization's AI management system against the standard's clauses. Certification applies to an organization's AI management system, not to a product, and Verdifax is not itself ISO/IEC 42001 certified. This page shows where Verdifax records can serve as evidence for requirements and controls that your organization implements.
What ISO/IEC 42001 actually requires
The standard mirrors the structure of ISO 27001 (information security) and ISO 9001 (quality), a high-level "AI management system" wrapping clauses on context, leadership, planning, support, operation, performance evaluation, and improvement.
The parts of the standard where a sealed execution record is most useful as evidence are:
- Clause 8, Operation. Operational planning and control, AI risk assessment and treatment, and AI system impact assessment. The organization keeps documented information showing that its processes were carried out as planned.
- Clause 9, Performance evaluation. Monitoring, measurement, analysis, evaluation, internal audit, management review. The organization keeps documented information as evidence of the results.
- Annex A control A.6.2.8, AI system recording of event logs. The organization determines at which phases of the AI system life cycle event logs are recorded. Verdifax records can serve as event-log evidence for an organization implementing this control.
Where Verdifax fits
| Clause or control | Verdifax contribution |
|---|---|
| 8.1 (operational planning and control) | Sealed input + output + policy-gate record per run, so the organization can cite specific manifest hashes as evidence of which configurations went live |
| 8.4 (AI system impact assessment) | The impact assessment can reference sealed runs as examples of the system's actual operation |
| A.6.2.8 (AI system recording of event logs) | Each call your system sends to Verdifax becomes a sealed event record; on leaf v5 and later records its anchored values (including the payload hash, the attested decision and the actor) are bound to the public log; the record also carries git SHA, container hash and dependency information in its system-provenance section, which is covered by the complete-record anchor on records sealed from run 238 on and sealed only by a hash inside the bundle on earlier records, and DOG seals the external inputs resolved at attestation time |
| 9.1 (monitoring, measurement, analysis, evaluation) | Each sealed run record is suitable as a sampling unit for performance evaluation; the audit PDF of an OK run adds a LegalEvidenceArtifact, compiled when the PDF is rendered and not part of the sealed record |
| 9.2 (internal audit) | The open-source verdifax-verify CLI recomputes a bundle's section hashes and anchored public-log leaves offline, so internal auditors do not need privileged access to check a sealed record; re-deriving the manifest hash itself is a server-side check (GET /runs/{id}/verify) |
| 9.3 (management review) | Aggregated manifest-hash counts + Sigstore Rekor anchoring give management review records whose anchored content is bound to a public log (the complete record from run 238 on, core values before). Since verifier 0.12.0, a public-log entry counts only if it is signed with a published Verdifax log-signing key and the timestamp the log signs for it verifies, so a rewritten record that anyone else logs as a new entry fails. Verdifax holds that key. From run 240 on, each record seals a 600-second anchoring window, so a later re-log, even by Verdifax, fails or must carry a new sealed date; earlier records show their authenticated anchoring time but cannot fail on it. |
What this does not cover
- Clauses 4 to 7 (context, leadership, planning, support), these are management-system process requirements. Verdifax produces evidence; it is not a management system itself.
- Annex A controls (objectives + controls), your organization decides which controls apply and implements them. Verdifax records can serve as evidence for some of them, such as A.6.2.8; they do not implement a control on your behalf.
- Certification, Verdifax does not certify the operator's management system. Accredited certification bodies do.