NIST will host the Workshop on Formal Methods within Certification Programs (FMCP 2024) on July 23-25, 2024, at the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence in Rockville, Maryland.
The goal of the workshop is to explore the use of formal methods within certification programs for cryptographic modules such as FIPS 140-3.
Topics for discussion include:
- Software formal methods of different families: model checking, interactive proof, use of SMT and SAT solvers, static analysis
- How formal methods can fit within existing validation programs and potential impacts on stakeholders, e.g., pragmatics of allowing some current testing-based requirements to be fulfilled by submitting machine-checkable proofs or running certain automated tool
- Approaches to reduce the requirement for NIST and other standards authorities to trust vendors to validate their systems correctly, e.g., thanks to rechecking of formal proof
- Opportunities to build community understanding of formal methods through discussion in NIST reports, e.g., on how to think about the trust consequences of different combinations of formal tools
- Pragmatic paths to adoption that use less rigorous methods with shallower learning curves
- Overviews of current and upcoming NIST programs and tools (like the Automated Cryptographic Validation Testing System [ACVTS] and Automated Cryptographic Module Validation Protocol [AMVP]) that may both be of direct interest to formal-methods researchers and serve as examples of current modes of interaction with vendors
NIST is also soliciting research and discussion papers, surveys, presentations, case studies, panel proposals, and participation from all interested parties. Submissions must be provided electronically in PDF format and sent to fmcp@nist.gov. Authors of accepted submissions must guarantee that at least one of the authors will register and attend the conference to present. NIST will post the accepted papers and presentations on the workshop website. Proceedings will be published as a NISTIR after the event.
