WarrInt: Integrity Validation for Criminal Legal Process

In the U.S., criminal legal process (e.g., a search warrant) is the key mechanism by which law enforcement entities and courts compel third parties (e.g., Google or Meta) to produce evidence in support of a criminal investigation. However, these legal orders are simply documents, commonly served electronically, and there is no inherent mechanism to guarantee their integrity. In recent years, law enforcement has increasingly reported the use of forged legal process used to advance a variety of malign purposes, with online sellers offering such capabilities for a fee. We design a practical system, WarrInt, that is compatible with the constraints of existing process mechanics and helps third parties identify when the legal orders they receive may be forged or tampered with. Our evaluation on real and modified legal process documents shows that WarrInt is effective at identifying modifications.