\chapter{From Rust to Lean: Verifying the Code That Actually Ships} \label{ch:rust} \section{The transcription problem} Everything so far proved facts about \emph{Lean} programs. But the Ed25519 that guards your SSH connection is written in \emph{Rust} (in our case, \code{curve25519-dalek} and its forks). An obvious plan: read the Rust, rewrite it in Lean by hand, verify the rewrite. The plan has a hole you could drive a key-recovery attack through: \textbf{what if you transcribe it wrong?} A hand-copy that silently fixes a bug --- or introduces one --- makes the proof a beautiful statement about code nobody runs. The projects behind this book close the hole with a mechanical translation pipeline: \begin{center} \begin{tikzpicture}[ stage/.style={draw=ink2,thick,rounded corners=3pt,align=center, minimum height=1.15cm,minimum width=2.5cm,font=\small}, arr/.style={-{Stealth},thick,ink2}, lbl/.style={font=\scriptsize\color{ink2},midway,above} ] \node[stage,fill=codebg] (rust) at (0,0) {\textbf{Rust source}\\ \code{field.rs}}; \node[stage,fill=warnsoft] (llbc) at (4.0,0) {\textbf{LLBC}\\ intermediate form}; \node[stage,fill=provensoft] (model) at (8.0,0) {\textbf{Lean model}\\ \code{gen/Funs.lean}}; \node[stage,fill=accentsoft] (proof) at (12.0,0) {\textbf{Your proofs}\\ \code{Proofs/*.lean}}; \draw[arr] (rust) -- node[lbl]{Charon} (llbc); \draw[arr] (llbc) -- node[lbl]{Aeneas} (model); \draw[arr] (model) -- node[lbl]{you} (proof); \node[font=\scriptsize\color{ink2},align=center] at (6.0,-1.15) {machine-generated, never hand-edited \hspace{2.2cm} human-written, kernel-checked}; \end{tikzpicture} \end{center} \textbf{Charon} compiles the Rust crate into LLBC (``low-level borrow calculus''), a simplified intermediate representation. \textbf{Aeneas} translates LLBC into pure Lean functions. The generated Lean --- the \emph{model} --- lands in a \code{gen/} directory with a strict house rule: \emph{never edit it}. Regenerate it from source, or don't touch it. Your proofs import the model and state theorems about it. \begin{bigidea} The object of verification is the \textbf{extracted model}, produced from the shipping source by a deterministic tool --- not a human transcription. The trust question shifts from ``did we copy the code right?'' (unauditable squinting) to ``does the translator preserve meaning?'' (one tool, studied once, shared by every project that uses it). You will hear this called \emph{shrinking the trusted base}: swap many ad-hoc trusts for one well-examined trust. \end{bigidea} \section{What extracted code looks like} Here is real input and real output, lightly abridged. The Rust (from \code{curve25519-dalek}, radix-51 field addition): \begin{lstlisting}[language=RustL] impl Add for FieldElement51 { fn add(self, rhs: &FieldElement51) -> FieldElement51 { let mut output = *self; for i in 0..5 { output.0[i] += rhs.0[i]; } output } } \end{lstlisting} And the Lean model Aeneas produces for it (shape, not verbatim): \begin{lstlisting}[language=Lean] def fieldElement51_add (self rhs : Array U64 5) : Result (Array U64 5) := do let a0 <- Array.index_usize self 0 let b0 <- Array.index_usize rhs 0 let s0 <- a0 + b0 -- U64 addition: can FAIL on overflow let out <- Array.update self 0 s0 ... -- and so on for limbs 1..4 \end{lstlisting} Three features deserve your full attention, because every proof in the next two chapters engages them: \begin{itemize}[leftmargin=1.4em] \item \textbf{Machine integers are honest.} \lean{U64} is not $\N$; it is 64-bit words. Aeneas models arithmetic on them precisely, overflow included. \item \textbf{Everything returns \lean{Result}.} The \lean{do}/\lean{<-} notation threads a computation that can \emph{fail} --- returning an error value instead of a result --- exactly where the Rust could panic or overflow. There is no pretending partial functions are total. \item \textbf{It is ugly.} Five limbs times load-add-store, all sequenced. Machine-generated code has no taste. The \emph{proofs} restore the elegance; the model's job is fidelity. \end{itemize} \section{Overflow is a proof obligation, not a footnote} In Rust, \rust{a + b} on \rust{u64} panics in debug mode and wraps in release mode when it overflows. In the extracted model, \lean{a + b} returns a \lean{Result} that is an error unless the mathematical sum fits. So the innocent theorem ``add returns the right field element'' \emph{cannot even be stated} without first proving \emph{add returns at all}: \begin{lstlisting}[language=Lean] theorem add_spec (a b : Array U64 5) (ha : LimbsBounded a) (hb : LimbsBounded b) : ∃ c, fieldElement51_add a b = .ok c ∧ LimbsBounded c ∧ ... \end{lstlisting} That hypothesis \lean{LimbsBounded} --- each limb below $2^{54}$, say --- is the bounds invariant promised in Chapters~\ref{ch:pat} and~\ref{ch:modular}: 51-bit payload plus headroom, so limb additions cannot reach $2^{64}$. The specification exposes what the Rust comments only whisper: this code is correct \emph{under a discipline of bounded inputs}, the discipline must be maintained by every caller, and now there is a machine checking that it is. \begin{worked}{running the extracted model by hand, at the envelope's edge} Trace the extracted \lean{fieldElement51_add} on paper twice --- once safely inside the operating envelope, once outside --- and watch the \lean{Result} machinery earn its keep. The model threads every step through \lean{Result}: a step either produces \lean{.ok v} and the \lean{do}-block continues, or produces an error and everything after it is skipped (short-circuit). \emph{Run 1 --- the worst legal input.} Take both arguments at the very edge of the bounds discipline: every limb of both inputs equal to $2^{54} - 1$ (the maximum the invariant \lean{LimbsBounded} admits). Limb $0$: \[ s_0 = (2^{54}-1) + (2^{54}-1) = 2^{55} - 2 \;<\; 2^{64}. \quad \text{\lean{.ok} --- continue.} \] Same for limbs $1$--$4$; the block reaches its end and returns \lean{.ok} of the array with every limb $2^{55}-2$. Note the output \emph{exceeds} $2^{54}$: addition legitimately leaves the input envelope, which is why the spec's conclusion states the \emph{wider} bound $< 2^{55}$ --- bounds flow through operations, and every theorem must say where they land. Nothing is failing here; the envelope is simply moving. \emph{Run 2 --- one step past the cliff.} Now feed limbs of $2^{63}$ (representable in a \lean{U64}, but far outside the invariant): \[ s_0 = 2^{63} + 2^{63} = 2^{64} \;\not<\; 2^{64} \quad\Longrightarrow\quad \text{the addition returns an error.} \] The \lean{do}-block short-circuits: limbs $1$--$4$ never execute, and the whole function returns the failure --- in Rust terms, this is the input on which the release build would have \emph{silently wrapped} to $0$ and kept going. The model turned undefined-ish behavior into a visible, provable event. Now reread the spec with both runs in mind: the hypotheses \lean{LimbsBounded a}/\lean{LimbsBounded b} are exactly the promise that run 2 cannot happen, and the conclusion \lean{∃ c, ... = .ok c} is exactly the payoff. One theorem, and the wrap-around is not ``probably absent'' but \emph{impossible for every input the discipline admits}. \end{worked} \begin{aha} Notice what just happened to ``ugly generated code with Results everywhere'': it forced us to discover, state, and prove the \emph{implicit operating envelope} of the optimized implementation. The dalek authors knew this envelope; it lived in comments and code-review lore. Now it is a theorem. Extraction does not merely enable verification --- it \emph{interrogates} the code. \end{aha} \section{Practicalities: extraction as surgery} Running Charon on a whole real-world crate drags in everything the crate touches --- iterators, byte serialization, trait machinery, SIMD backends --- much of it irrelevant to the arithmetic core and some of it beyond what the translator supports. The working method, learned the honest way in the companion projects: \begin{itemize}[leftmargin=1.4em] \item \textbf{Extract functions, not crates.} Charon accepts specific roots (individual functions and impls); the extraction scripts in each companion repo (\code{extract.sh}) name exactly the needed roots and get one small, clean, merged model per repo --- dozens of definitions instead of a thousand. \item \textbf{Some code will not translate.} The dalek SIMD backends use CPU-specific intrinsics no translator models. The boundary is then \emph{engineered} rather than assumed: extraction pins the serial backend --- real, translatable code the campaign proved like everything else --- and the SIMD alternatives are scoped out of the verified claim, the scoping documented in the ledger. Honest boundaries beat heroic fictions (Chapter~\ref{ch:honesty} dwells on this). \item \textbf{Pin your tools.} The pipeline records exact versions of Charon, Aeneas, and Lean. A model regenerated with a different translator version is a \emph{different model}; reproducibility of the proofs starts with reproducibility of the artifact under proof. \end{itemize} \begin{worked}{sizing an extraction --- the surgery, quantified} ``Extract functions, not crates'' sounds like taste; it is arithmetic, and the numbers from the actual scalar-layer extraction of \code{dalek-ed25519-verified} make it vivid. First attempt: point Charon at the \code{Scalar} type wholesale. The dependency closure dragged in the byte-serialization path (\rust{from_bytes}: shifts, masks, and a \rust{wrapping_shr} on a signed type), the iterator machinery behind a zip-reverse-fold (\code{IterMut}, \code{Chunks}, three trait instantiations each), and the high-level wrapper's trait impls --- roughly a \emph{thousand} generated definitions, several using features at the translator's edge, every one of them something a proof might have to step around. Second attempt: name exactly the arithmetic roots --- \code{Scalar52::add}, \code{sub}, \code{mul_internal}, \code{montgomery_reduce}, and their constants --- and the generated model is \emph{28 definitions}, every one arithmetic, every one provable. Do the auditor's division: $28/1000$ --- the surgery cut $97\%$ of the material a reader would otherwise have to trust-or-verify. The lesson generalizes beyond this pipeline: \textbf{the size of the thing you verify is a design variable}, and an hour spent narrowing extraction roots buys weeks of not proving lemmas about iterator adapters. (The one-sentence version for your future code reviews: verification pressure flows backwards into interface design --- arithmetic kernels with narrow waists get verified; grand unified objects do not.) \end{worked} \begin{pitfall} When an extraction fails or a model looks bizarre, the temptation is to ``fix'' the generated Lean by hand. Resist absolutely. A hand-edited model is a hand-transcription with extra steps --- the exact hole this pipeline exists to close. The fixes live in extraction scope (choose different roots), in the source (rarely), or in documented assumptions (openly). \end{pitfall} \begin{tryit} Open the companion repo \code{dalek-ed25519-verified}: read \code{extract.sh} (the roots), skim \code{verification/gen/Funs.lean} for \code{add}/\code{sub} (recognize the load-add-store pattern above), then read the first twenty lines of \code{verification/Proofs/FieldSpec.lean} and identify: the bounds invariant, the \lean{Result} handling, and the statement of the theorem. You now recognize every structural element. The mathematics inside is Chapters~\ref{ch:denotation} and~\ref{ch:field}. \end{tryit} \section*{Exercises} \exercise{The Rust expression \rust{output.0[i] += rhs.0[i]} hides four distinct failure/effect points that the Lean model makes explicit. Name them. (Hint: two indexings, one arithmetic operation, one write.)} \exercise{Suppose limbs are bounded by $2^{54}$. What is the largest value \lean{a0 + b0} can take, and how many such additions can chain before a \lean{U64} overflow becomes possible? Show the margin calculation --- this is precisely why the invariant is $2^{54}$ and not $2^{63}$.} \exercise{(Design) Your colleague proposes verifying a hand-written Lean ``reference implementation'' instead of the extracted model, because it is prettier. List two failure modes this reintroduces, and one legitimate use a reference implementation still has (hint: Chapter~\ref{ch:denotation} uses one as the \emph{specification} side).} \section*{Solutions and pathways} \solutionsintro \solhead{8.1} \pathway Expand the sugared Rust into its elementary operations, in evaluation order, and ask of each: can this one panic, wrap, or write? \answer In order: (1) \emph{index read} \rust{rhs.0[i]} --- can panic if $i$ is out of bounds (here the loop guarantees $i < 5$, and the model makes even that guarantee a visible \lean{Result} on \lean{Array.index_usize}); (2) \emph{index read} \rust{output.0[i]} --- same; (3) \emph{the addition} --- can overflow the \lean{U64}: the failure point the worked example walked off; (4) \emph{the write-back} into \rust{output.0[i]} --- an effect the pure model represents as \lean{Array.update}, producing a \emph{new} array value (functional update). Four operations, three failure modes, one effect --- all hidden inside \rust{+=} and all explicit in the extracted model, which is precisely why the model is provable and the sugar is not. \solhead{8.2} \pathway Maximize under the hypothesis, then chain: after $k$ additions without reduction, limbs can approach $k$ times the single-input bound; find where that crosses $2^{64}$. \answer Largest single sum: $s_0 = 2 \cdot (2^{54}-1) = 2^{55}-2$. Chaining: adding $k$ inputs all bounded by $2^{54}$ yields limbs $< k \cdot 2^{54}$; the \lean{U64} cliff sits where $k \cdot 2^{54} \ge 2^{64}$, i.e.\ $k = 2^{10} = 1024$ chained additions. The margin calculation behind ``$2^{54}$, not $2^{63}$'': the invariant must survive \emph{multiplication}, whose column sums need $5 \cdot (\text{bound})^2 < 2^{128}$ (the Chapter~\ref{ch:automation} worked example: $5 \cdot 2^{108} < 2^{111}$, seventeen bits spare). A $2^{63}$ bound would give $5 \cdot 2^{126} > 2^{128}$ --- overflow. So the number $54$ is set by the \emph{quadratic} consumer of the bound, not the linear one, and the addition headroom ($1024$ chained adds) is what falls out, not what was aimed for. Real invariants are negotiated between operations; the spec records the treaty. \solhead{8.3} \pathway For failure modes, ask what the mechanical pipeline was bought to eliminate. For the legitimate use, ask what role \emph{wants} to be clean and human-readable rather than faithful to machine details. \answer Two reintroduced failure modes: (1) \emph{transcription drift} --- the hand-model quietly fixes, or introduces, an off-by-one the Rust does not have, and the proof certifies the wrong artifact (the exact hole the pipeline closes); (2) \emph{staleness} --- the Rust moves on (a rebase, an optimization), nobody re-syncs the hand-model, and the certificate silently detaches from the shipping code; extraction fails loudly instead. One legitimate use: as the \emph{specification} --- the clean, obviously-correct definition (schoolbook arithmetic over $\Fp$, ideal group law) that the ugly extracted model is proven \emph{equal to}. The reference implementation's prettiness is a liability in the role of ``thing verified'' and an asset in the role of ``thing verified against'' --- one sentence worth keeping for every verification design review you ever attend. \begin{checkpoint} You should now be able to: draw the Rust $\to$ LLBC $\to$ Lean pipeline and say what each stage preserves; explain why generated models are never hand-edited; read a \lean{Result}-typed extracted function and point to where overflow lives; and state why ``the proof needs a bounds hypothesis'' is a discovery about the \emph{code}, not a weakness of the method. \end{checkpoint}