Verifying security patches

Jonathan Gallagher, Robin Gonzalez, Michael E. Locasto

Abstract: In this paper, we introduce a formal framework for ensuring the correctness of security patches. We discuss the issues and provide a sketch of how one could implement a system that proves (in many cases) or provides robust evidence (in other cases) that a security patch fixes a bug, and changes nothing else about the semantics of a program. We make use of an analysis of "bug surfaces" the set of inputs that trigger a bug, to give a type theoretic characterization of the non-buggy surface of a program. We thus give credence to the Langsec notion that security flaws are often about input handling, and show how formal patch and bug analysis can be used to define a more correct input type for a program.