computer science

ProVerif

ProVerif is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand ProVerif rather than just read about it. In short: ProVerif is a software tool for automated reasoning about the security properties of cryptographic protocols. The tool has been developed by Bruno Blanchet and others.

Key takeaways

ProVerif belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect ProVerif to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of ProVerif from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

ProVerif is a software tool for automated reasoning about the security properties of cryptographic protocols. The tool has been developed by Bruno Blanchet and others. Support is provided for cryptographic primitives including: symmetric & asymmetric cryptography; digital signatures; hash functions; bit-commitment; and signature proofs of knowledge. The tool is capable of evaluating reachability properties, correspondence assertions and observational equivalence. These reasoning capabilities are particularly useful to the computer security domain since they permit the analysis of secrecy and authentication properties. Emerging properties such as privacy, traceability and verifiability can also be considered. Protocol analysis is considered with respect to an unbounded number of sessions and an unbounded message space. The tool is capable of attack reconstruction: when a property cannot be proved, an execution trace which falsifies the desired property is constructed.

Applicability of ProVerif ProVerif has been used in the following case studies, which include the security analysis of actual network protocols:

Abadi & Blanchet used correspondence assertions to verify the certified email protocol. Abadi, Blanchet & Fournet analyse the Just Fast Keying protocol, which was one of the candidates to replace Internet Key Exchange (IKE) as the key exchange protocol in IPsec, by combining manual proofs with ProVerif proofs of correspondence and equivalence. Blanchet & Chaudhuri studied the integrity of the Plutus file system on untrusted storage, using correspondence assertions, resulting in the discovery, and subsequent fixing, of weaknesses in the initial system. Bhargavan et al. use ProVerif to analyse cryptographic protocol implementations written in F#; in particular the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol has been studied in this manner. Chen & Ryan have evaluated authentication protocols found in the Trusted Platform Module (TPM), a widely deployed hardware chip, and discovered vulnerabilities. Delaune, Kremer & Ryan and Backes, Hritcu & Maffei formalise and analyse privacy properties for electronic voting using observational equivalence. Delaune, Ryan & Smyth and Backes, Maffei & Unruh analyse the anonymity properties of the trusted computing scheme Direct Anonymous Attestation (DAA) using observational equivalence. Kusters & Truderung examine protocols with Diffie-Hellman exponentiation and XOR. Smyth, Ryan, Kremer & Kourjieh formalise and analyse verifiability properties for electronic voting using reachability. Google verified its transport layer protocol ALTS. Sardar et al. verified the remote attestation protocols in Intel SGX. Further examples can be found online: [1].

Alternatives Alternative analysis tools include: AVISPA (for reachability and correspondence assertions), KISS (for static equivalence), YAPA (for static equivalence). CryptoVerif for verification of security against polynomial time adversaries in the computational model. The Tamarin Prover is a modern alternative to ProVerif, with excellent support for Diffie-Hellman equational reasoning, and verification of observational equivalence properties.

References

External links Official website

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with ProVerif

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what ProVerif claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to ProVerif before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about ProVerif ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of ProVerif

In research: ProVerif appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses ProVerif in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: ProVerif is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Automated reasoning, Cryptographic software, Free software programmed in OCaml, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for ProVerif outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study ProVerif in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what ProVerif means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain ProVerif out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is ProVerif in simple terms?

ProVerif is a software tool for automated reasoning about the security properties of cryptographic protocols. The tool has been developed by Bruno Blanchet and others.

Why does ProVerif matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study ProVerif?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on ProVerif.