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Towards Model Checking of Voting Protocols in Uppaal

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Electronic Voting (E-Vote-ID 2020)

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Abstract

The design and implementation of a trustworthy e-voting system is a challenging task. Formal analysis can be of great help here. In particular, it can lead to a better understanding of how the voting system works, and what requirements on the system are relevant. In this paper, we propose that the state-of-art model checker Uppaal provides a good environment for modelling and preliminary verification of voting protocols. To illustrate this, we demonstrate how to model a version of Prêt à Voter in Uppaal, together with some natural extensions. We also show how to verify a variant of receipt-freeness, despite the severe limitations of the property specification language in the model checker.

The aim of this work is to open a new path, rather then deliver the ultimate outcome of formal analysis. A comprehensive model of Prêt à Voter, more accurate specification of requirements, and exhaustive verification are planned for the future.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    I.e., infinite or ending in a state with no outgoing transitions.

  2. 2.

    Without the explicit bounds, the range of values would be [−32768,32768].

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the support of the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) and the National Centre for Research and Development Poland (NCBiR) under the INTER/PolLux projects VoteVerif (POLLUX-IV/1/2016) and STV (POLLUX-VII/1/2019).

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Correspondence to Wojciech Jamroga .

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Jamroga, W., Kim, Y., Kurpiewski, D., Ryan, P.Y.A. (2020). Towards Model Checking of Voting Protocols in Uppaal. In: Krimmer, R., et al. Electronic Voting. E-Vote-ID 2020. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12455. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60347-2_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60347-2_9

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