Building certi"ed libraries for PCC: dynamic storage allocation

Proof-carrying code (PCC) allows a code producer to provide to a host a program along with its formal safety proof. The proof attests to a certain safety policy enforced by the code, and can be mechanically checked by the host. While this language-based approach to code certi"cation is very general in principle, existing PCC systems have only focused on programs whose safety proofs can be automatically generated. As a result, many low-level system libraries (e.g., memory management) have not yet been handled. In this paper, we explore a complementary approach in which general properties and program correctness are semi-automatically certi"ed. In particular, we introduce a low-level language, CAP, for building certi"ed programs and present a certi"ed library for dynamic storage allocation. c © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.