Related papers: Baking for Dafny: A CakeML Backend for Dafny

Dafny is a verification-aware programming language that comes with a compiler and static program verifier. However, neither the compiler nor the verifier is proved correct; in fact, soundness bugs have been found in both tools. This paper…

Using large language models (LLMs) to generate source code from natural language prompts is a popular and promising idea with a wide range of applications. One of its limitations is that the generated code can be faulty at times, often in a…

In recent years, program verifiers and interactive theorem provers have become more powerful and more suitable for verifying large programs or proofs. This has demonstrated the need for improving the user experience of these tools to…

This paper is a tutorial for newcomers to the field of automated verification tools, though we assume the reader to be relatively familiar with Hoare-style verification. In this paper, besides introducing the most basic features of the…

Formal verification techniques aim at formally proving the correctness of a computer program with respect to a formal specification, but the expertise and effort required for applying formal specification and verification techniques and…

Verification-aware programming languages such as Dafny and F* provide means to formally specify and prove properties of a program. Although the problem of checking an implementation against a specification can be defined mechanically, there…

Existing informal language-based (e.g., human language) Large Language Models (LLMs) trained with Reinforcement Learning (RL) face a significant challenge: their verification processes, which provide crucial training signals, are neither…

This research idea paper proposes leveraging Large Language Models (LLMs) to enhance the productivity of Dafny developers. Although the use of verification-aware languages, such as Dafny, has increased considerably in the last decade, these…

This report presents the Dafny language and verifier, with a focus on describing the main features of the language, including pre- and postconditions, assertions, loop invariants, termination metrics, quantifiers, predicates and frames.…

The proliferation of decentralized financial (DeFi) systems and smart contracts has underscored the critical need for software correctness. Bugs in such systems can lead to catastrophic financial losses. Formal verification offers a path to…

Algorithmic and data refinement are well studied topics that provide a mathematically rigorous approach to gradually introducing details in the implementation of software. Program refinements are performed in the context of some programming…

The Message Passing Interface (MPI) is widely used in parallel, high-performance programming, yet writing bug-free software that uses MPI remains difficult. We introduce DafnyMPI, a novel, scalable approach to formally verifying MPI…

Large Language Models (LLMs) show promise in automated software engineering, yet their guarantee of correctness is frequently undermined by erroneous or hallucinated code. To enforce model honesty, formal verification requires LLMs to…

Students in computing education increasingly use large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT. Yet, the role of LLMs in supporting cognitively demanding tasks, like deductive program verification, remains poorly understood. This paper…

We provide full certifications of two versions of merge sort of arrays in the verification-aware programming language Dafny. We start by considering schemas for applying the divide-and-conquer or partition method of solution to…

Because of the probabilistic/nondeterministic behavior of quantum programs, it is highly advisable to verify them formally to ensure that they correctly implement their specifications. Formal verification, however, also traditionally…

We introduce DafnyBench, the largest benchmark of its kind for training and evaluating machine learning systems for formal software verification. We test the ability of LLMs such as GPT-4 and Claude 3 to auto-generate enough hints for the…

LLMs excel at reasoning, but validating their steps remains challenging. Formal verification offers a solution through mechanically checkable proofs. Interactive theorem provers (ITPs) dominate mathematical reasoning but require detailed…

Program verifiers such as Dafny automate proofs by outsourcing them to an SMT solver. This automation is not perfect, however, and the solver often requires hints in the form of assertions, creating a burden for the proof engineer. In this…

We present a methodology to develop verified smart contracts. We write smart contracts, their specifications and implementations in the verification-friendly language Dafny. In our methodology the ability to write specifications,…