Machine code verification of a tiny ARM hypervisor

Hypervisors are low level execution platforms that provide isolated partitions on shared resources, allowing to design secure systems without using dedicated hardware devices. A key requirement of this kind of solution is the formal verification of the software trusted computing base, preferably at the binary level. We accomplish a detailed verification of an ARMv7 tiny hypervisor, proving its correctness at the machine code level. We present our verification strategy, which mixes the usage of the theorem prover HOL4, the computation of weakest preconditions, and the use of SMT solvers to largely automate the verification process. The automation relies on an integration of HOL4 with BAP, the Binary Analysis Platform developed at CMU. To enable the adoption of the BAP back-ends to compute weakest preconditions and control flow graphs, a HOL4-based tool was implemented that transforms ARMv7 assembly programs to the BAP Intermediate Language. Since verifying contracts by computing the weakest precondition depends on resolving indirect jumps, we implemented a procedure that integrates SMT solvers and BAP to discover all the possible assignments to the indirect jumps under the contract precondition.