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A Self-certifying Compilation Framework for WebAssembly

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Verification, Model Checking, and Abstract Interpretation (VMCAI 2021)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 12597))

Abstract

A self-certifying compiler is designed to generate a correctness proof for each optimization performed during compilation. The generated proofs are checked automatically by an independent proof validator. The outcome is formally verified compilation, achieved without formally verifying the compiler. This paper describes the design and implementation of a self-certifying compilation framework for WebAssembly, a new intermediate language supported by all major browsers.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The implementation is available as open source at https://github.com/nokia/web-assembly-self-certifying-compilation-framework.

  2. 2.

    The full specification is at https://webassembly.github.io/spec/.

  3. 3.

    https://github.com/WebAssembly/spec.

  4. 4.

    The formal statements follow Dijkstra-Scholten convention [9], where \([\varphi ]\) indicates that the expression \(\varphi \) is valid. We use \(d(X,Y,\ldots )\) to abbreviate \((d(X),d(Y),\ldots )\).

  5. 5.

    The full correspondence for edge \(e_3\) is that \(K,G,M=K',G',M'\) (stack, global, and main memories are identical) and that \(L[0]=L'[0]\), \(L[1]=L'[3]\), and \(L[2]=L'[5]\).

  6. 6.

    Excluding comments. Measured with cloc: https://github.com/AlDanial/cloc.

  7. 7.

    https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/WebAssembly/C_to_wasm.

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Acknowledgments

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant CCF-1563393. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nokia Bell Labs, Murray Hill, NJ, 07974, USA

    Kedar S. Namjoshi

  2. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA

    Anton Xue

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  1. Kedar S. Namjoshi
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Correspondence to Kedar S. Namjoshi .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Fritz Henglein

  2. Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Sharon Shoham

  3. Technion, Haifa, Israel

    Yakir Vizel

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Namjoshi, K.S., Xue, A. (2021). A Self-certifying Compilation Framework for WebAssembly. In: Henglein, F., Shoham, S., Vizel, Y. (eds) Verification, Model Checking, and Abstract Interpretation. VMCAI 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12597. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67067-2_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67067-2_7

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