Signing the Future: Securing AI and ML Artifacts with Mihai Maruseac

In this episode of What’s in the SOSS?, host Yesenia Yser sits down with Mihai Maruseac, the lead of the OpenSSF AI/ML Working Group and Security and Privacy expert at OpenAI, to dive deep into the unique security challenges facing artificial intelligence. Unlike traditional software packages, AI models cannot simply be inspected for malware by looking at their weights – malicious code only exposes itself upon execution. Mihai outlines how the community is answering this threat through the evolution of the OpenSSF Model Signing (OMS) specification. Discover how OMS creates an unshakeable chain of custody for models, data sets, and agent workflows, the structural shift toward implementation-agnostic toolchains, and what the future looks like for a fully realized, end-to-end secure AI supply chain.

Chapters:

00:22 – Welcome: Yesenia introduces AI/ML Working Group lead Mihai Maruseac.00:51 – From TensorFlow to OpenAI: Mihai’s journey navigating open source security and AI.01:47 – Core Risks of Model Tampering: A look at hidden risks inside uninspectable model weights.03:27 – Establishing Chain of Custody: How cryptographic signatures verify file integrity from training to deployment.05:04 – Evolution of the OMS Spec: Why the community standardized on forward-compatible, framework-agnostic formats.07:17 – Tracking Iteration (v1.1 & v1.2): An overview of newly introduced security keys and community features.08:26 – Choosing Your PKI Tooling: Why the OMS specification remains highly flexible for users.10:22 – Real-World Integration: Early success stories with Kaggle, NVIDIA, and the path to PyTorch.12:42 – Looking Ahead to Version 2: Overcoming "attestation sprawl" by unifying multiple security claims.15:29 – The Ideal AI Supply Chain: Using signed artifacts with GUAC to automatically map vulnerabilities.17:09 – How to Get Involved: Immediate opportunities to contribute to signature format convergence.18:11 – Rapid Fire Segment: Mihai shares his favorite retro games, hiking, and love for Vim.19:37 – Final Words of Advice: Why contributors of all skill levels are welcome to join.

Episode links:

Mihai Maruseac’s LinkedIn PageOpenSSF Model Signing (OMS)OpenSSF Model Signing Spec GitHub RepoOpenSSF AI/ML Working GroupOpenSSF Guide: Visualizing Secure MLOps (MLSecOps): A Practical Guide for Building Robust AI/ML Pipeline SecurityGraph for Understanding Artifact Composition (GUAC)SigstoreIn-totoOllamaGet involved with the OpenSSFSubscribe to the OpenSSF newsletterFollow the OpenSSF on LinkedIn