A Formal Language for Cryptographic Pseudocode (LPAR 2008)
Michael Backes, Matthias Berg, Dominique Unruh
[ official ]
Game-based cryptographic proofs are typically expressed using pseudocode, which lacks a formal semantics. This can lead to ambiguous specifications, hidden mistakes, and even wrong proofs. We propose a language for expressing proofs that is expressive enough to specify all constructs occurring in cryptographic games, including probabilistic behaviors, the usage of oracles, and polynomial-time programs. The language is a probabilistic higher-order lambda calculus with recursive types, references, and support for events, and is simple enough that researchers without a strong background in the theory of programming languages can understand it. The language has been implemented in the proof assistant Isabelle/HOL.