CB-AdES Plugtests^TM

ETSI’s Centre for Testing and Interoperability, with the support of ETSI’s Technical Committee for Electronic Signatures and Trust Infrastructures (TC ESI), is organising the CB-AdES (CBOR Advanced Electronic Signatures) Plugtests™ event, which will be held remotely from 26 October to 23 November 2026. This event is co-funded by the European Union (EU) and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). 

In support of Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 on electronic identification and trust services (eIDAS), as significantly updated by Regulation (EU) 2024/1183 introducing the European Digital Identity framework, ETSI standards for Advanced Electronic Signatures (AdES) have played a central role in enabling legally robust and interoperable electronic transactions across the European Union.  

Within this framework, ETSI’s Technical Committee for Electronic Signatures and Trust Infrastructures (TC ESI) has developed a new signature format, CB-AdES (CBOR Advanced Electronic Signatures), specified in ETSI TS 119 152-1 published in March 2026. 

This specification extends the AdES ecosystem to CBOR-encoded data structures (RFC 8949, Concise Binary Object Representation), enabling trusted digital signatures for compact binary data. CB-AdES inherits the core properties defined in existing ETSI AdES standards, such as XAdES (XML), PAdES (PDF), CAdES (CMS), ASiC (containers), and JAdES (JSON), including signature levels (e.g., baseline B, T, LT, LTA), validation data embedding, and support for qualified trust services as defined under eIDAS. 

By introducing CB-AdES, ETSI aims to address the growing demand for secure and trustworthy data exchange in environments where efficiency and scalability are critical. The specification will significantly enhance the security, integrity, and authenticity of CBOR-based communications, particularly in IoT deployments where ensuring trust in device-to-device and device-to-cloud interactions is essential. This is fully aligned with European policy objectives related to cybersecurity, data spaces, and digital sovereignty.

What is the scope of the CB-AdES Plugtests?

The testing will cover the ETSI Technical Specification TS 119 152-1. This will be the first interoperability event specifically focused on CB-AdES. The scope of the Plugtests includes the following: 

• Generation and cross-validation:  Each participant will generate CB-AdES signatures according to specific test cases and requirements, and upload them to a portal. Other participants will then validate these signatures and submit their verdicts. 
• Negative testing: Scenarios focusing on validation robustness and error handling.
• Augmentation (e.g., timestamping, validation data embedding) and verification of extended CB-AdES signatures.
• Formal conformance testing against ETSI TS 119 152-1 requirements. Participants will be able to upload signatures to a conformance checker for verification.

As a remote event, participants will not need to travel to ETSI premises. All signature exchanges and verifications will be conducted via a dedicated online testing portal.

Testing will not occur in real time; the portal will be available 24/7 throughout the event, allowing participants from all time zones to generate, upload, and verify signatures at their convenience.

Who may participate?

Developers, providers, and stakeholders involved in electronic signature solutions are welcome.
The event is free of charge and is open to ETSI members and non-members.