\documentclass[11pt]{report} \input{preamble} \begin{document} % ===================== TITLE PAGE ===================== \begin{titlepage} \pagecolor{ink}\color{paper} \begin{tikzpicture}[remember picture,overlay] % The proof pyramid the book climbs. Cover-design law, learned twice: % an unlabeled near-invisible shape on a dark ground reads as a printing % artifact, not a motif. So the pyramid declares itself — visible fills, % named floors, a caption. Solid mixed colors only (transparency on dark % renders as smudge and varies by viewer). \foreach \i/\w/\layer in {0/5.4/Field, 1/4.2/Group law, 2/3.0/Scalars, 3/1.8/Signature}{ \draw[paper!45!ink, line width=0.6pt, fill=paper!12!ink] ($(current page.center)+(-\w/2,{-3.0+\i*0.95})$) rectangle ++(\w,0.8); \node[paper!80!ink, font=\footnotesize\scshape] at ($(current page.center)+(0,{-2.6+\i*0.95})$) {\layer}; } \node[paper!55!ink, font=\small\itshape, anchor=north] at ($(current page.center)+(0,-3.35)$) {the proof pyramid this book climbs}; \end{tikzpicture} \vspace*{3.2cm} {\fontsize{15}{18}\selectfont\scshape\color{accent} a hands-on course in\par} \vspace{0.5cm} {\fontsize{40}{44}\selectfont\bfseries Verifying Cryptography\\[2pt] with Lean 4\par} \vspace{0.8cm} {\fontsize{15}{20}\selectfont\color{paper} From {\ttfamily 1+1=2} to a machine-checked proof that\\ real elliptic-curve code is correct.\par} \vfill {\large\color{paper} A curriculum for the curious undergraduate ---\\ no prior formal-verification or Lean experience assumed.\par} \vspace{0.8cm} {\color{paper!40!ink}\rule{\linewidth}{0.6pt}\par} \vspace{0.15cm} {\small\color{paper}\raggedright Companion to a public transparency log of machine-checked proofs --- \textbf{\code{ltl.zkdefi.org}}, 19 entries and counting, one of them post-quantum. Open it on your phone now; by the last chapter you will be able to verify every entry yourself.\par \smallskip Every code snippet in this book runs. Every claim it makes about a proof, a proof assistant has checked.\par} \end{titlepage} \restoregeometry \pagecolor{paper}\color{ink} % BEGIN PUBHIST ==================== publication history ===================== % The current-edition line is machine-checked by check-book.sh: its chapter % count and page count must match the built book, and the committed PDF must % contain it. Historical lines are frozen and exempt from the claim checks. \thispagestyle{empty} \vspace*{2cm} {\small \noindent\textbf{Second edition} --- published August 8, 2026: fourteen chapters, 132 pages. \medskip \noindent\emph{Publication history} \begin{itemize}[leftmargin=1.4em] \item \textbf{First edition}, July 3, 2026 --- twelve chapters and the Interlude; expanded the same day with the pen-and-paper program and in-book solution pathways (53 to 106 pages). \item July 28, 2026 --- the Attestation Protocol added as a thirteenth chapter. \item \textbf{Second edition}, August 8, 2026 --- full didactic overhaul (seven moves, from a seven-reader audit); new Chapter~13, \emph{The Second Summit} (SLH-DSA, post-quantum); the Attestation Protocol becomes the fourteen-chapter book's single finale; \code{check-book.sh} added --- the script that verifies every countable claim in this book, including the line at the top of this page, against measured reality. \end{itemize} \medskip \noindent The complete revision record is the git history of \code{github.com/saymrwulf/verifying-crypto-with-lean}. } \clearpage % END PUBHIST ================================================================ % ===================== HOW TO READ ===================== \chapter*{How to read this book} \markboth{How to read this book}{} \addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{How to read this book} There is a public web page --- \code{ltl.zkdefi.org} --- that lists nineteen pieces of software, each stamped with a machine-checked proof that it does what it claims. One of those stamps was earned two days before the writer of that proof could make anyone else believe it; another belongs to a signature scheme built to survive a quantum computer. This book is the road from not understanding a single word on that page to being able to verify every entry on it yourself, and to add your own. You are about to learn one of the most powerful ideas in computer science: how to make a computer \emph{prove} that a program is correct --- not test it on a few inputs and hope, but establish, with the certainty of mathematics, that it does the right thing on \emph{every} input. We will aim that power at cryptography, where a single overlooked carry bit can quietly compromise every key a system ever generates. This book assumes you can program a little and remember a little high-school algebra. It assumes \textbf{nothing} about formal methods, proof assistants, or Lean. We start from \code{1 + 1 = 2} and end three summits later: real, published, machine-checked theorems about Ed25519 --- the signature scheme in your SSH client, your phone, and half the internet --- then about a hash-based scheme built for the quantum era, and finally about the public log that lets a stranger check all of it without trusting anyone. \begin{itemize}[leftmargin=1.4em] \item \textbf{Do the exercises.} Reading a proof is like watching someone swim. You learn by getting in the water. Solutions are in the \code{solutions/} folder, but consult them only after a real attempt. \item \textbf{Everything runs.} The \code{exercises/} folder has Lean files you can open and check. When the book says ``Lean accepts this,'' you can watch it happen. \end{itemize} \begin{aha} The secret this book reveals: a proof is not a wall of Greek symbols meant to intimidate. A proof is a \emph{program} --- and a proof assistant is a very strict compiler for it. Once you see proofs as programs, the fear evaporates and the fun begins. \end{aha} \noindent\emph{(That green box you just read is an ``aha'' --- an intuition meant to click. You will also meet coral \emph{big idea} boxes for load-bearing concepts, grey \emph{try it} boxes that ask you to run something, amber \emph{pitfall} boxes marking traps, and a framed \emph{checkpoint} at each chapter's end. That is the whole legend; you have now seen one in the wild.)} \subsection*{Working the pen-and-paper material} The notebook-ruled \emph{Pen and paper} boxes are not optional enrichment; they are half the course. Each one performs a computation with the \emph{real} constants of the systems under study --- $2^{255}-19$, radix $2^{51}$, the fold constant $19$, the actual inversion chain --- because the numbers themselves carry the arguments: a headroom margin of $17$ bits, a design constant that fails at $8$ and works at $16$, a certificate that beats trial division by a factor of $10^{34}$. Copy each one out by hand at least once --- transcription is where the steps become yours. Every chapter's exercises are followed immediately by \emph{Solutions and pathways}: the pathway (how a person finds the answer) before the answer, because the pathway is the transferable part. The honest protocol: attempt, struggle a little, then read --- in that order. \subsection*{For instructors} The book is engineered for self-study, which makes it easy to teach from: every exercise carries an immediate pathway-then-answer solution, so contact hours can go to the parts that need a human --- discussing the discussion exercises (Chapters 1, 7, 10, 11, and 13 carry one; they are the seminar seeds), pair-debugging the Lean files, and auditing real repositories together (Appendix~\ref{app:tour} is a ready-made lab session). Grading suggestion: collect the pen-and-paper worked examples \emph{reproduced from memory} rather than problem sets --- the book's bet is that a student who can re-derive the $16p$ audit or the certificate cost ledger unprompted has the durable skill, and that bet is testable. The Lean solution files compile against the pinned toolchain in the repo; \code{lake build Solutions} is your answer key's answer key. Prerequisites in practice: one programming course (any language) and comfort with high-school algebra; no number theory, no logic, no Rust. The fourteen-week plan below has been paced so the two hard climbs --- Chapter~9 and the Interlude --- each get a full week with nothing else competing. \subsection*{A fourteen-week plan} For self-study or a seminar, the book paces naturally as a semester: \begin{center} \small \begin{tabular}{@{}lll@{}} \toprule \textbf{Weeks} & \textbf{Material} & \textbf{Deliverable} \\ \midrule 1 & Ch.~1 + toolkit Cards 1--2 & the two Ch.~1 audits, by hand \\ 2--3 & Ch.~2--3 + \code{Ch02/Ch03.lean} & term-mode proof portfolio \\ 4 & Ch.~4 + \code{Ch04.lean} & the \code{zero\_add} board trace, from memory \\ 5 & Ch.~5 + \code{Ch05.lean} & ten goals, right tool each \\ 6 & Ch.~6 + \code{Ch06.lean} & the Euclid inversion, reproduced \\ 7 & Ch.~7 + \code{Ch07.lean} & hand-checked certificate for 97 \\ 8 & Ch.~8 + repo reading (App.~C) & annotated extract of \code{gen/} \\ 9 & Ch.~9 + \code{Ch09.lean} & the miniature bridge, proved \\ 10 & Interlude & the complete by-hand verification \\ 11 & Ch.~10--11 & audit drill on a stranger's repo \\ 12 & Ch.~12 + \code{Ch12.lean} & graduation: spec--refusal--fix--certificate \\ 13 & Ch.~13 & the checksum see-saw + the cone table, from memory \\ 14 & Ch.~14 + project & a fifteen-minute independent log verification;\\ & & then one open lemma or one solo bridge \\ \bottomrule \end{tabular} \end{center} \tableofcontents % ===================== CHAPTERS ===================== \input{chapters/ch01-why-verify} \input{chapters/ch02-meet-lean} \input{chapters/ch03-propositions-as-types} \input{chapters/ch04-tactics} \input{chapters/ch05-numbers-and-automation} \input{chapters/ch06-modular-arithmetic} \input{chapters/ch07-primality-certificates} \input{chapters/ch08-rust-to-lean} \input{chapters/ch09-denotation-bridge} \input{chapters/interlude-by-hand} \input{chapters/ch10-verifying-a-field} \input{chapters/ch11-honesty-and-axioms} \input{chapters/ch12-the-pyramid} \input{chapters/ch13-second-summit} \input{chapters/ch14-attestation-protocol} \appendix \input{chapters/appendix-toolkit} \input{chapters/appendix-walkthroughs} \input{chapters/appendix-repo-tour} \input{chapters/glossary} \end{document}