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SPEC: An Equivalence Checker for Security Protocols

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Programming Languages and Systems (APLAS 2016)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 10017))

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Abstract

SPEC is an automated equivalence checker for security protocols specified in the spi-calculus, an extension of the pi-calculus with cryptographic primitives. The notion of equivalence considered is a variant of bisimulation, called open bisimulation, that identifies processes indistinguishable when executed in any context. SPEC produces compact and independently checkable bisimulations that are useful for automating the process of producing proof-certificates for security protocols. This paper gives an overview of SPEC and discusses techniques to reduce the size of bisimulations, utilising up-to techniques developed for the spi-calculus. SPEC is implemented in the Bedwyr logic programming language that we demonstrate can be adapted to tackle further protocol analysis problems not limited to bisimulation checking.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    http://www.ntu.edu.sg/home/atiu/spec-prover/.

  2. 2.

    http://www.lsv.ens-cachan.fr/Software/spore/.

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Acknowledgements

The authors receive support from MOE Tier 2 grant MOE2014-T2-2-076. The first author receives support from NTU Start Up grant M4081190.020.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Computer Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

    Alwen Tiu, Nam Nguyen & Ross Horne

Authors
  1. Alwen Tiu
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  2. Nam Nguyen
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  3. Ross Horne
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ross Horne .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Kyoto University , Kyoto, Japan

    Atsushi Igarashi

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Tiu, A., Nguyen, N., Horne, R. (2016). SPEC: An Equivalence Checker for Security Protocols. In: Igarashi, A. (eds) Programming Languages and Systems. APLAS 2016. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10017. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47958-3_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47958-3_5

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-47957-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-47958-3

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