Cybersecurity · head to head
Cosign vs Hanwha Vision
Cosign
Cybersecurity
Signs and verifies container images and artifacts, with or without managing keys
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
Hanwha Vision
Cybersecurity
Korean camera maker whose Wisenet WAVE VMS licences are perpetual per channel with no annual renewal
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Only Cosign has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
- Each has a real cost: Cosign keyless signing inherits every weakness of the identity provider behind it. Sigstore’s own threat model states that if an identity provider is compromised, Sigstore will issue certificates to those identities, so a compromised account produces perfectly valid signatures.; Hanwha Vision nDAA compliance is confirmed per model and per bill of materials rather than across the brand, and TAA status depends on whether a specific unit was made in Korea or Vietnam, so a buyer with procurement obligations must get both stated on the quote rather than relying on a brand-level claim.
- They diverge on capability: Cosign covers Keyless signing, Hanwha Vision covers Wisenet WAVE VMS.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Cosign and Hanwha Vision actually diverge.
| Attribute | Cosign | Hanwha Vision |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free | On request |
| Pricing model | Open source, no licence fee | One-time purchase |
| Free tier | Yes | No |
| Platforms | macOS, Linux, Windows, Docker | Windows, Linux, Web, iOS, Android |
Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Cybersecurity).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in Cosign
- Keyless signing
- Key and KMS signing
- Registry-native storage
- In-toto attestations
- Offline verification
- Trusted root and signing config
Only in Hanwha Vision
- Wisenet WAVE VMS
- On-camera AI
- NDAA and TAA positioning
- Multi-site management
- Open platform
- Wisenet cameras and recorders
- Cybersecurity hardening
- Integration licences
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Cosign
- Signing container images in a build pipeline without managing long-lived private keysnot Hanwha Vision
- Attaching a signed bill of materials to a release so consumers can verify its provenancenot Hanwha Vision
- Meeting a customer or regulatory requirement for signed artifactsnot Hanwha Vision
- Verifying third-party images before they enter an internal registrynot Hanwha Vision
Hanwha Vision
- A federal agency or federal contractor whose procurement rules exclude Section 889 covered manufacturersnot Cosign
- A school district that wants a fixed one-time software cost rather than a per-camera monthly subscriptionnot Cosign
- A site running 200 cameras for a decade where a cloud subscription would cost several times a perpetual licencenot Cosign
- An integrator standardising on one manufacturer for cameras, recorders and VMS to simplify supportnot Cosign
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Cosign
- Keyless signing inherits every weakness of the identity provider behind it. Sigstore’s own threat model states that if an identity provider is compromised, Sigstore will issue certificates to those identities, so a compromised account produces perfectly valid signatures.
- A signature proves who signed, never whether they should have. The documentation is explicit that Sigstore cannot determine authorisation, so every consumer must write and maintain their own identity and issuer policy or verification means nothing.
- Nothing is enforced without an admission controller. Signing changes what you can prove, not what runs, and the official policy controller has a small maintainer base for a component sitting in a cluster admission path.
- Upgrades break pipelines. Version 3 changed defaults, version 4 is announced as removing legacy functionality and roughly half the command line flags, and two official client libraries still lacked support for the new log format as of mid 2026.
- Signatures do not expire. An artifact signed before a maintainer account was compromised and one signed after are indistinguishable unless somebody is actively monitoring the transparency log, and almost nobody is.
Hanwha Vision
- NDAA compliance is confirmed per model and per bill of materials rather than across the brand, and TAA status depends on whether a specific unit was made in Korea or Vietnam, so a buyer with procurement obligations must get both stated on the quote rather than relying on a brand-level claim.
- Perpetual licences mean you own the servers, storage and patching, so the cost avoided on subscription reappears as IT labour and a hardware refresh every five to seven years.
- Hanwha publishes no list pricing and sells through distributors, so the perpetual-versus-subscription comparison it wins on paper still requires a distributor quote to verify.
- Wisenet WAVE is a solid mid-market VMS but does not match Genetec or Milestone on enterprise features such as federation across independently owned systems, scripted operator procedures or deep access control unification.
- Hanwha Vision is part of Hanwha Group, a large Korean conglomerate spanning defence, chemicals and finance, so the video business is one line among many and roadmap priority is set at a corporate level well above the security division.
Pricing, plan by plan
Cosign
Free- CosignFree
- Apache-2.0
- Public Sigstore infrastructure free to use
- No usage limits published
Hanwha Vision
On request- Wisenet WAVE channel licence$undefined/year
- Perpetual per-channel licence that does not expire once activated
- No annual renewal fee to keep the system running
- Sold singly and in 4, 8, 16, 24 and 48 channel bundles
Which should you pick?
Choose Cosign if
- You need keyless signing.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on macOS, Linux, Windows, Docker.
- You also want key and kms signing.
Choose Hanwha Vision if
- You need wisenet wave vms.
- You work on Windows, Linux, Web, iOS, Android.
- You also want on-camera ai.
Questions people ask
- Is Cosign or Hanwha Vision better?
- Neither clearly leads. Cosign starts at Free and Hanwha Vision at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Cosign or Hanwha Vision?
- Cosign has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Cosign and On request for Hanwha Vision.
- Does Cosign or Hanwha Vision run on more platforms?
- Cosign runs on macOS, Linux, Windows, Docker. Hanwha Vision runs on Windows, Linux, Web, iOS, Android.
- Can I use Cosign for free?
- Yes. Cosign has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Hanwha Vision starts at On request.
- What is Cosign best used for?
- Cosign is most often used for signing container images in a build pipeline without managing long-lived private keys, attaching a signed bill of materials to a release so consumers can verify its provenance, meeting a customer or regulatory requirement for signed artifacts, verifying third-party images before they enter an internal registry. Of those, signing container images in a build pipeline without managing long-lived private keys and attaching a signed bill of materials to a release so consumers can verify its provenance are not what Hanwha Vision is typically brought in for.
- What can Cosign do that Hanwha Vision cannot?
- Cosign covers Keyless signing, Key and KMS signing, Registry-native storage, In-toto attestations. Hanwha Vision covers Wisenet WAVE VMS, On-camera AI, NDAA and TAA positioning, Multi-site management.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Cosign: Does Cosign tell me if an image is vulnerable?
No. It has no vulnerability knowledge whatsoever. It can carry an SBOM as a signed attestation but never reads it. Pair it with a scanner.
Hanwha Vision: Is Hanwha Vision NDAA compliant?
Hanwha is a South Korean manufacturer and is not among the Section 889 covered entities, which are Hikvision, Dahua, Huawei, ZTE and Hytera, and its cameras do not use banned Chinese system-on-chip processors. Confirm compliance per model on the quote.
Cosign: Is signing alone enough?
No. Verification is a command somebody runs. Without an admission controller enforcing it, an unsigned image still runs.
Hanwha Vision: Are Wisenet WAVE licences subscriptions?
No. Channel licences are perpetual and do not expire once activated, with no annual renewal fee.
Cosign: What does a bare cosign verify actually prove?
Very little. Without a pinned certificate identity and OIDC issuer, it accepts a valid signature from any identity at all.
Hanwha Vision: Is Wisenet WAVE the same as Nx Witness?
It is built on the Network Optix platform, so the two share a common core, with Hanwha adding its own camera integration and support.
Cosign: What is the risk of keyless signing?
Your OIDC provider becomes the root of trust. Compromise of that account yields genuine, verifiable signatures, so account security is the control that matters.
Hanwha Vision: Is Hanwha TAA compliant?
Many models are, manufactured in South Korea and Vietnam, but TAA is a per-unit question tied to manufacturing origin, so it must be verified model by model.
Cosign: Should we expect breaking changes?
Yes. Version 4 is announced to remove roughly half the flags, and a post-quantum migration is named as a further breaking change after that.
Related pages
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