VerKer

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The repository contains ACSL specifications for the Linux kernel functions. The aim of the project is formal verification of Linux kernel library functions.

Papers

• D. V. Efremov, M. U. Mandrykin (2017) Formal verification of Linux kernel library functions In: Proceedings of ISP RAS, 29:6 (2017), 49–76 (in Russian) [PDF]
• Efremov D., Mandrykin M., Khoroshilov A. (2018) Deductive Verification of Unmodified Linux Kernel Library Functions. In: Margaria T., Steffen B. (eds) Leveraging Applications of Formal Methods, Verification and Validation. Verification. ISoLA 2018. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 11245. Springer, Cham [ArXiv PDF]
• Volkov G., Mandrykin M., Efremov D. (2018) Lemma Functions for Frama-C: C Programs as Proofs, ArXiv e-prints 1811.05879 [ArXiv PDF]

Proofs Status

ID	Function	Status	Logic function	libfuzzer	Comment
1	check_bytes8	proved	proved	yes
2	match_string	proved	not required
3	memchr	proved		yes
4	memcmp	proved		yes
5	memscan	proved	not required	yes
6	skip_spaces	proved	proved	yes	requires too strict (remove strlen)
7	strcasecmp	proved		yes
8	strcat	proved	not required		usr strcmp in ensures
9	strchr	proved	proved	yes
10	strchrnul	proved	proved	yes
11	strcmp	proved	proved	yes
12	strcpy	proved	not required		use strcmp logic function
13	strcspn	proved	proved	yes
14	strim		not required	!const
15	strlen	proved	proved	yes
16	strncasecmp			yes
17	strncat		not required
18	strnchr	proved		yes
19	strncmp	proved		yes
20	strncpy		not required
21	strnlen	proved	proved	yes
22	strnstr			yes
23	strpbrk	proved	proved	yes
24	strrchr	proved		yes
25	strreplace		not required	!const
26	strsep	proved	not required	!const
27	strspn	proved	proved	yes
28	strstr			yes
29	sysfs_streq	proved		yes
30	strlcat		not required
31	strlcpy	proved	not required		use strncmp lf in ensures
32	memmove	proved*	not required		use memcmp logic function at ensures
33	memcpy	proved	not required		use memcmp logic function at ensures
34	memset	proved	not required	!const
35	kstrtobool	proved	not required	yes
36	_parse_integer_fixup_radix	proved	not required	yes
37	_parse_integer			yes

* memmove - except pointer difference vc fail. Model limitation.

Toolchain

The specifications are developed in the ACSL language. Frama-C with AstraVer(Jessie) plugin is used as the deductive verification instrument.

• A description of how to install the tools can be found here. You can run them on Linux, Windows, Mac OS X.
• By link you can download the VirtualBox VM image in ova format with pre-installed and already configured tools. Image size ~ 3 gigabytes. OS: Ubuntu. Login: user. Password: 1. There are two repositories in the workspace directory. First one is verker, the second is acsl-proved (examples with verification protocols).

How to use the vanilla Frama-C

There is the compatibility layer with the vanilla Frama-C. You can find it in the acsl_syntax_extension.h file. To use the unmodified Frama-C you need to comment out the line #define ASTRAVER_TOOLCHAIN 1 in the acsl syntax extension header. In the Makefile you may want to uncomment FRAMAC line to use the gui version. If you don't want to use the deductive verification plugin you need to redefine FRAMAC_DFLAGS variable in the Makefile.

In details:

diff --git a/acsl_syntax_extension.h b/acsl_syntax_extension.h
index 7018289..ca7b7e3 100644
--- a/acsl_syntax_extension.h
+++ b/acsl_syntax_extension.h
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
  * Comment this define if you want to use
  * vanilla Frama-C.
  */
-#define ASTRAVER_TOOLCHAIN 1
+//#define ASTRAVER_TOOLCHAIN 1
 
 
 #ifdef ASTRAVER_TOOLCHAIN /* used by default */

diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 4c6f529..0567e01 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -21,12 +21,12 @@ OPAM_EVAL        := eval $$(opam env)
 else
 OPAM_EVAL        := eval $$(opam config env)
 endif
-#FRAMAC           := $(OPAM_EVAL); frama-c-gui -c11 -cpp-extra-args " -C -E -x c $(SPEC_CFLAGS) " -machdep gcc_x86_64
-FRAMAC           := $(OPAM_EVAL); frama-c -c11 -cpp-extra-args " -C -E -x c $(SPEC_CFLAGS) " -machdep gcc_x86_64
+FRAMAC           := $(OPAM_EVAL); frama-c-gui -c11 -cpp-extra-args " -C -E -x c $(SPEC_CFLAGS) " -machdep gcc_x86_64
+#FRAMAC           := $(OPAM_EVAL); frama-c -c11 -cpp-extra-args " -C -E -x c $(SPEC_CFLAGS) " -machdep gcc_x86_64
 FRAMAC_NOHUP     := $(OPAM_EVAL); nohup frama-c -c11 -cpp-extra-args " -C -E -x c $(SPEC_CFLAGS) " -machdep gcc_x86_64
-#FRAMAC_DFLAGS    :=
+FRAMAC_DFLAGS    :=
 #FRAMAC_DFLAGS    := -wp
-FRAMAC_DFLAGS    := -av
+#FRAMAC_DFLAGS    := -av
 FRAMAC_UFLAGS    := -av -av-target update
 FRAMAC_REPLAY    := -av-target why3autoreplay
 FRAMAC_SPROVE    := -av-target why3sprove -av-why3-opt " --strategy proof_juicer --theory-filter axiom"

Repository files

Each library function of the Linux kernel is located in a separate *.c file. The corresponding *.h file contains declarations, types, and structures specific to the function.

• The kernel_definitons.h file contains common for all functions types, macros, and other declarations.
• In ctype.h there are several functions, which were initially developed as macro. For the convenience of formal verification, these macro (islower, isupper, isdigit, ...) have been rewritten as an inline functions.
• The acsl_syntax_extension.h file contains the compatibility layer for the vanilla Frama-C.

How to run

You can type make help to see the available options. It's recommended to start with already proved functions.

Proofs Replay

To replay the proofs on your PC you need to type make replay-proved. If you type make replay-proved-separatedly the instrument will try to replay proofs for functions one-by-one. CVC-1.4, CVC-1.6, Alt-Ergo-2.2.0 solvers are required to replay proofs.

Prove

To run the tools on a particular file you need to type make verify-<function>. The command will run the Why3 ide with a number of verification conditions. If you type make verify-proved the instrument will be run only on the already proved functions.

How to add a function in the repository

There is a tool called dismember in the repository. It is used to "transfer" the function code into a separate file. Example (code for the strim function):

$ dismember -m ~/linux-stable/lib/string.c -k ~/linux-stable --double -f strim --output-dir .

Two files will be created: strim.c and strim.h

• -m - path to the file with function definition
• -k - path to the kernel directory
• -double - generate two files *.h and *.c
• -f - function name
• -output-dir - output directory

Specifications

The specification contract (precondition and postcondition) is located in the corresponding *.h file for each proved function (for example, strlen.h). A header file may also contain lemmas/axioms/logical functions if they are developed for a function.

A *.c file contain a body of a function with loops invariants, evaluation functions, and assertions.

For some functions, specifications are redundant. In fact, they describe function's behavior in two different ways. For example, the contract for the strlen function consists of a "regular" functional requirements and the requirement for correspondence of the returned result to the logical function strlen.

What is the reason for a such "redundancy"?

The logical function strlen is convenient to use in the other function's specification. For example, strcmp function (and strcmp logical function in the strcpy contract). All the basic properties of a logical functions are expressed in lemmas (lemmas are not proved at this stage). Such specifications can't be translated in the run-time assertions with E-ACSL plugin. Therefore, for those functions with a correspondent logical function, there are additionally exists a "usual" specification.

Criteria to develop a logical function:

1. It is possible to write a logical function only for a pure C function;
2. It is rational to write logical functions if they are useful for developing specifications of other functions. For example, in the memcpy contract, you can express the equality of src and dest by calling the memcmp logical function.

Full verification protocols (solver launches) are included (*.av folders) in the repository for the proved funtions.

At the given stage, the correctness of the lemmas in the specifications is not proved in any way. Thus, they can contain contradictions. The lemmas will be proved at the second project stage by means of Coq or lemma functions.

How to run the instruments

$ frama-c -av <func>.c
$ frama-c -av check_bytes8.c

Or

$ make verify-<func>
$ make verify-check_bytes8

LibFuzzer integration

LibFuzzer - is the library for function fuzzing. The status of functions fuzzing integration can be viewed in Proofs Status table. It is required to have clang compiler installed and libFuzzer.a in the project directory to run fuzzing. How to run fuzzing:

$ make fuzz-<func>
$ make fuzz-check_bytes8