Transcript PPT slides

The Design and Implementation
of a Certifying Compiler
[Necula, Lee]
A Certifying Compiler for Java
[Necula, Lee et al]
David W. Hill
CSCI 297
5.31.2005
How to deal with Untrusted
Code?
How can the host system ensure that the
untrusted code will not damage it, for example, by
corrupting internal data structures?
How can the host ensure that the untrusted code
will not use too many resources (such as CPU,
memory, and so forth) or use them for too long a
time period?
How can the host make these assurances without
undue effort and negative effect on overall
system performance?
Proof Carrying Code
Proof-Carrying Code is a technique by which the
host establishes a set of safety rules that
guarantee safe behavior of programs.
The code producer creates a formal safety proof
that proves, for the untrusted code, adherence to
the safety rules.
Then, the host is able to use a simple and fast
proof validator to check, with certainty, that the
proof is valid and hence the foreign code is safe
to execute.
High Level Overview – Proof
Carrying Code
Code
Producer
Certifying
Compiler
Program
Proof Checker
Proof
Security Policy
Code
Consumer
A code producer sends a program and
its safety proof to a code consumer
– A certifying compiler constructs the
program and proof
– A proof checker checks them against a
security policy
PCC Process
The source program is compiled to machine
code annotated with loop invariants and with
some other annotations.
The annotated machine code is passed
through the Verification Condition Generator
(VCGen) that verifies the well-formedness of
the code (such as that the branch targets are
within the code segment) and emits a
verification condition (VC). The verification
condition is a predicate that is provable only if
the code meets the safety policy.
PCC Process
The verification condition is passed to a
theorem prover that finds and emits a proof of
it according to the logic requested by the code
consumer.
The proof is verified to be valid (with respect to
the given logic) and to prove the required
verification condition.
If the proof checking succeeds, the code
meets the safety policy and can be safely
installed for execution.
The Cartoon Guide to PCC
My program
solves your
problem.
Code producer
Great! But let me
quickly look over the
instructions first.
Code consumer
The Cartoon Guide to PCC
Code producer
Code consumer
The Cartoon Guide to PCC
This store
instruction is
dangerous!
Code producer
Code consumer
The Cartoon Guide to PCC
Can you prove
that it is
always safe?
Code producer
Code consumer
The Cartoon Guide to PCC
Yes! Here’s the proof I
got from my certifying
Java compiler!

Code producer
Can you prove
that it is
always safe?
Code consumer
The Cartoon Guide to PCC

Code producer
Your proof checks
out.
Code consumer
The Cartoon Guide to PCC

Code producer
I believe you
because I believe
in logic!
Code consumer
Design & Implementation of an
Certifying Compiler
Translates programs written in a type-safe
subset of C into highly optimized DEC Alpha
assembly language programs.
Certifier that automatically checks the type
safety and memory safety of any assembly
language program produced by the compiler.
Certifier produced a formal proof that can be
used by the code consumer to ensure safe code
Overview of Certifying
Compiler
Code annotations assist certifier to verify
type safety and memory safety
Type specifications declare the type of
argument and result register for every
function in the code.
Inside the Certifier
VCGen creates a safety predicate for each
function.
Prover produces a formal proof of the predicate
Proof checker validates the proof
Certifier could be used for other properties, other
than memory and type safety.
Sample Code
Source Code
Touchstone
Compiler
PCC
VCGen
Native Code
With Annotations
Verification Condition
Theorem Prover
Safety
Safety Proof
Proof
Code Producer
Code Consumer
Safety Policy
VCGen
Verification Condition
Ok
CPU
Proof Checker
Touchstone
Compiler
Source Code
PCC
Tampered
VCGen
Native Code
With Annotations
Verification Condition
Theorem Prover
Safety Policy
Safety Proof
Code Producer
Hacker
Tampered
Native Code
With Annotations
Code Consumer
Safety Proof
Safety Policy
VCGen
Verification Condition
(may change)
 Tampered Code is
not delivered to the CPU
Proof Checker
No
 But safety is still guaranteed if the code is
modified in such a way that the VC is unchanged
CPU
Sample Proof
First rule states that it is safe to read an element
of an array if its index is within the array
boundaries
Second rule states that the result of the read
operation has the type of the array elements
Proves that assembly language program is safe
(memory)
Benchmarks
Certifying Compiler for Java 2nd paper
Optimized compiler Special J that
compiles java bytecodes into target code
for x86 architecture
Implement a certifier for a large subset of
the Java language
PCC binaries are of reasonable size and
can be checked rapidly by a small proof
checker
PCC & Certifying compilers are scalable
Architecture
Java
binary
Certifying
compiler
Native
code
VCGen
Annotations
VCGen
Axioms
VC
Axioms
VC
Proof
generator
Code producer
Proof
Proof
checker
Code Consumer
VC Generation - Detailed
Checks code that could violate safety
policy and produces proof obligations
movl 4(%eax), %ebx  Assembly Inst.
Saferd4 (add eax 4) proof obligation
VC Generation - Loops
When VCGen finds annotation below:
ANN_LOOP (INV=P, MODREG=R)
VC Generation
PCC Architecture Details
Host only needs VC Generator and Proof
Checker – Small TCB
VC GEN = 23K lines (C)
Proof Checker = 1.4K lines (C)
Benchmarks
Online Demo
George Necula’s Touchstone Demo
http://raw.cs.berkeley.edu/Ginseng/Images/p
ccdemo.html
PCC Advantages
Great for mobile code, consumer only has
to run a small proof checking process.
Burden shifted to producer.
No cryptography of third party checks
required
Code is verified before execution,
therefore don’t have to kill processes after
acquisition of resources
Issues for Discussion
Writing good policies is the hard part
– Better ways to define policies
– Ways to reason about properties of policies
– Ideas for the right policies for different
scenarios
– Ways to develop, reason about, and test
distributed policies
References
-George Necula’s Web Page
http://raw.cs.berkeley.edu/papers.html#annotated
-Peter Lee’s Web Page
http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~petel/
-Flexibility and Trustworthiness in Proof-Carrying Code, Andrew
Bernard, CMU
-Lecture 19. UVA, Proof Carrying Code, David Evans
-Some open issues for certifying compilers, Greg Morrisett
-Code Carrying Proofs, Aytekin Vargun, Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute
Thank You!
Discussion…..