Code Verification for Practical Machine Architectures
This is the project page for the DARPA CRASH effort at the University
of Texas at Austin.
Download
The software for the x86isa project developed over the course of
this program is available for download (licensed under BSD 3-Clause)
as a part of the ACL2 community books.
Here is the github page: ACL2
System and Books as Maintained by the Community.
The x86isa books are located
at: acl2/books/projects/x86isa and documentation is
available here.
People
Keshav Kini
(PhD Student) |
J Moore
(Professor)
|
Ben Selfridge
(PhD Student)
|
Nathan Wetzler
(PhD Candidate)
|
Previous Members of the CRASH Team:
Natahlie Beavers
(Undergraduate Student)
|
Soumava Ghosh
(Masters Student)
|
Robert Krug
(Research Engineering/
Scientist Associate IV)
|
Corbyn Salisbury
(Undergraduate Student) |
Théo Zimmermann
(CS Graduate Student) |
Problem Description
With pervasive use of software artifacts in every aspect of human
life, the cost of malfunctioning software today is staggering. Formal
methods have shown significant promise to improve software reliability
dramatically. However, deductive or theorem proving solutions, based
on human-guided, semi-automatic mechanical reasoning often involve
prohibitive manual effort, while fully automatic approaches based on
decision procedures can quickly run out of available time and memory.
Better tool suites and methodologies are needed in order to achieve
the promise of formal methods for achieving correct, resilient
computing systems. This project focuses on the creation of formal
tools for code verification, in particular for x86 machine code, with
a related goal of improving the ACL2 theorem proving environment.
Research Goals
- Develop an executable, formal specification for a significant
subset of the x86 instruction set architecture (ISA). Our focus is on
the 64-bit mode of Intel's IA-32e mode. Our current version of the
model has a simulation speed of ~3.3 million instructions/second in
its programmer-level mode (where we operate at the level of linear
memory) and and ~920,000 instructions/second with a two-level page
table configuration in its system-level mode (where we operate at the
level of physical memory). We support almost 120 general-purpose
instructions (221 opcodes) and 80 SSE/SSE2 instructions.
- Construct a mechanized proof assistant for x86 binary code. The
development of a formal specification, discussed above, is a critical
step towards reaching this goal. The efficient executability of that
specification is also critical, in order to validate the model by
co-simulation against actual x86 execution. We will use
the ACL2
theorem prover to carry out code proofs, both using BDD/SAT-based
symbolic simulation and by developing methods based on general-purpose
theorem proving techniques, especially rewriting and induction.
- Improve
the ACL2
theorem proving environment. This is a long-term goal that our
research group continues to pursue. ACL2 is our core formal
verification technology, so improvements to ACL2 support the research
goals discussed above, such as the
``abstract stobjs'' feature.
- Develop tools to gain confidence in satisfiability (SAT) solvers.
Researchers develop high performance applications called SAT solvers
to efficiently solve satisfiability problems, and any problem that can
be encoded into a Boolean formula can be investigated with SAT
solvers. It is easy to check a solution to a satisfiability problem
if one can be found. However, if a solver outputs that a formula is
unsatisfiable, we must trust that the solver exhausted all possible
assignments. Existing verification tools cannot verify all techniques
used in state-of-the-art solvers.
- Create automated, sophisticated satisfiability encodings with
respect to software verification. The encoding of problems, such as
software verification, into Boolean formulas has a huge impact on the
performance of SAT solvers. We will develop techniques that, given a
certain high-level description, will make a high quality translation
of the problem into a Boolean formula.
Technical Approach
Our technical approach to x86 code verification is based on building a
formal interpreter-style model for the x86 instruction set
architecture (ISA) in the language of
the ACL2 theorem
prover. By making our model efficient to execute on concrete
data, we are validating our model by co-simulation against execution
on an actual x86 processor.
Our previous work suggests that we can build ACL2 proof infrastructure
on top of that model, though the complexity of the x86 architecture
presents new challenges. In support of this work, we will continue to
improve the ACL2 proof environment. We will also employ symbolic
simulation, which is an effective approach to software verification,
and develop capabilities to apply, in a sound way, BDDs and SAT
techniques, which together are the most used techniques for symbolic
simulation.
Dissemination of Research Results
We intend to make our x86 ISA specification and associated proof
technology available from this page by the end of 2014 (sooner
upon request from DARPA). A much simpler
model is based on the y86 ISA, developed in the textbook Computer Systems: A Programmer's
Perspective, 2/E by Bryant and O'Hallaron (in particular, Chapter 4).
We provide here an early version of our y86
model; for a recent version, see
directory models/y86/ in the ACL2 Community
Books.
SOFTWARE
The ACL2 theorem proving system has been publicly available for about
two decades, and is currently available
from the ACL2
home page. It is in regular use at several companies, including
AMD, Centaur Technology (VIA Technology), IBM, and Rockwell Collins.
It has and continues to be used by U.S. government personnel, some of
whom have expressed interest in our x86 model in particular.
Visit the ACL2
home page to obtain the latest version of ACL2 and to view that system's
documentation.
PUBLICATIONS
This link to our project's publications
page lists 30 publications from this project.
