# esig/dss

Digital Signature Service : creation, extension and validation of advanced electronic signatures

Repository: https://github.com/esig/dss
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/esig-dss
Homepage: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-building-blocks/wikis/display/DIGITAL/Digital+Signature+Service+-++DSS
Language: Java
License: LGPL-2.1
License Family: copyleft
Topics: xades, cades, pades, asic, signature, esignature, validation, java, jades
Last push: 2026-08-18T08:01:42+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 85/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 98, release rhythm 61, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4233, "days_push": 15, "days_rel": 180, "gap_med": 53, "n_releases_24m": 8}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1025, forks 409 (observed 2026-08-28T04:03:16.548982+00:00)

## What it is
DSS (Digital Signature Service) is an open-source Java library from the European Commission for creating, extending, and validating advanced electronic signatures (AdES). It supports XAdES, CAdES, PAdES, JAdES, and ASiC formats, plus revocation data handling, timestamping, and eIDAS-compliant signature validation with detailed reports.

## Use cases
- create PAdES signatures on PDF documents in Java
- validate XAdES or CAdES signatures against eIDAS rules
- extend a B-level signature to a higher AdES baseline level
- verify qualified electronic signatures with trusted lists and revocation data
- add RFC 3161 timestamps to documents or ASiC containers
- build a signature validation web service for EU eIDAS compliance
- extract the original document from a signed ASiC container
- sign JSON payloads with JAdES

## When to choose
- you need standards-compliant eIDAS/ETSI electronic signature support in a Java application
- you must validate signatures with full diagnostic reports and certificate chain/revocation checking
- you need to support multiple signature formats (XML, CMS, PDF, JSON, ASiC) with one framework
- you are building EU public-sector or e-invoicing software requiring qualified signature validation

## When to avoid
- you need a simple non-standard digital signature and a lighter crypto library suffices
- your stack is not JVM-based (DSS is Java-only)
- you want an end-user signing application rather than an embeddable library
- you need a very small dependency footprint, as DSS is a large multi-module framework

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: security, cryptography, pdf, serialization, developer-tools
- domain: security, developer-tools, pdf, e-government, legal
- platform: jvm, cross-platform
- tags: electronic-signatures, xades, cades, pades, jades, asic, eidas, signature-validation, digital-signatures, timestamps

## Member repositories
- esig/dss (main) score 85

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:16.548982+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T07:08:03.588167+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/esig/dss (fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:16.548982+00:00, sha d7cdc5d689d5)
  - homepage: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-building-blocks/wikis/display/DIGITAL/Digital+Signature+Service+-++DSS (fetched 2026-08-29T13:08:36.666679+00:00, sha 2a2ab90ab89e)
  - site_page: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-building-blocks/sites/aboutconfluencepage.action (fetched 2026-08-29T13:08:36.676863+00:00, sha c85e6b783a4d)
  - site_page: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-building-blocks/sites/display/DIGITAL/About+us (fetched 2026-08-29T13:08:36.678744+00:00, sha b130407ee862)
  - site_page: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-building-blocks/DSS/webapp-demo/doc/dss-documentation.html (fetched 2026-08-29T13:08:36.688283+00:00, sha 7e1c4848bbbd)
  - site_page: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-building-blocks/DSS/webapp-demo/apidocs/index.html (fetched 2026-08-29T13:08:36.697355+00:00, sha dba579367512)
  - site_page: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-building-blocks/sites/display/DIGITAL/faq (fetched 2026-08-29T13:08:36.681054+00:00, sha 957f2b405382)
  - site_page: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-building-blocks/sites/display/DIGITAL/eSignature+List+of+Trusted+Lists (fetched 2026-08-29T13:08:36.682727+00:00, sha e1cf3d4cbd3e)
  - site_page: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-building-blocks/sites/display/DIGITAL/eSignature+FAQ (fetched 2026-08-29T13:08:36.684526+00:00, sha 5baeaa7dd027)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.