Unlocking Cryptography: Formal Methods in Protocol Design 🔐

COSIC seminar – Introduction to Applications of Formal Methods in Cryptographic Protocols – Georgio Nicolas (KU Leuven, COSIC) Cryptographic systems are getting more and more complex, especially in the setting of protocols where different schemes are composed in order to provide certain security guarantees. This increase in complexity comes in line with a larger probability of finding bugs in all stages of the software cycle; namely design, implementation and verification. The use of Formal Methods in all of these stages allows us to reduce the number of potential points of failure in our systems. Using such tools, we can leverage mathematical axioms to prove security properties about our systems based on our design which doubles as a set of hypotheses. In this seminar, we will take an introductory look over formal methods and how it can be used to deploy systems with higher levels of assurance.