A compiler is fully-abstract if the compilation from source language programs to target language programs preserves and reflects behavioural equivalence. Such compilers have important security benefits, as they limit the power of an attacker interacting with the program in the target language to that of an attacker interacting with the program in the source language. Proving compiler full- abstraction is, however, rather complicated. A common proof technique is based on the back-translation of target-level program con- texts to behaviourally-equivalent source-level contexts. However, constructing such a back-translation is problematic when the source language is not strong enough to embed an encoding of the target language. For instance, when compiling from the simply-typed λ- calculus (λτ ) to the untyped λ-calculus (λu ), the lack of recursive types in λτ prevents such a back-translation. We propose a general and elegant solution for this problem. The key insight is that it suffices to construct an approximate back- translation. The approximation is only accurate up to a certain number of steps and conservative beyond that, in the sense that the context generated by the back-translation may diverge when the original would not, but not vice versa. Based on this insight, we describe a general proof technique for proving compiler full- abstraction and demonstrate it on a compiler from λτ to λu. The proof uses asymmetric cross-language logical relations and makes innovative use of step-indexing to express the relation between a context and its approximate back-translation. We believe this proof technique can scale to challenging settings and enable simpler, more scalable proofs of compiler full-abstraction.
Wed 20 JanDisplayed time zone: Guadalajara, Mexico City, Monterrey change
14:20 - 16:00 | Track 2: Correct CompilationResearch Papers at Grand Bay South Chair(s): Jens Palsberg University of California, Los Angeles | ||
14:20 25mTalk | Fully-Abstract Compilation by Approximate Back-Translation Research Papers Dominique Devriese iMinds - Distrinet, KU Leuven, Marco Patrignani KU Leuven, Frank Piessens iMinds - Distrinet, KU Leuven Pre-print Media Attached | ||
14:45 25mTalk | Lightweight Verification of Separate Compilation Research Papers Jeehoon Kang Seoul National University, Yoonseung Kim Seoul National University (South Korea), Chung-Kil Hur Seoul National University, Derek Dreyer MPI-SWS, Viktor Vafeiadis MPI-SWS, Germany Media Attached File Attached | ||
15:10 25mTalk | From MinX to MinC: Semantics-Driven Decompilation of Recursive Datatypes Research Papers Media Attached | ||
15:35 25mTalk | Sound Type-dependent Syntactic Language Extension Research Papers Pre-print Media Attached File Attached |