A symbiotic relationship between formal methods and security

Abstract

Security played a significant role in the development of formal methods in the 70s and early 80s. Have the tables turned? Are formal methods now ready to play a significant role in the development of more secure systems? While not a panacea, the answer is yes, formal methods can and should play such a role. In this paper we first review the limits of formal methods. Then after a brief historical excursion, we summarize some recent results on how model checking and theorem proving tools revealed new and known flaws in authentication protocols. Looking to the future we discuss the challenges and opportunities for formal methods in analyzing the security of systems, above and beyond the protocol level.