Relational Hoare Logic for Realistically Modelled Machine Code

Abstract: Many security- and performance-critical domains, such as cryptography, rely on low-level verification to minimize the trusted computing surface and allow code to be written directly in assembly. However, verifying assembly code against a realistic machine model is a challenging task. Furthermore, certain security properties -- such as constant-time behavior -- require relational reasoning that goes beyond traditional correctness by linking multiple execution traces within a single specification. Yet, relational verification has been extensively explored at a higher level of abstraction. In this work, we introduce a Hoare-style logic that provides low-level, expressive relational verification. We demonstrate our approach on the s2n-bignum library, proving both constant-time discipline and equivalence between optimized and verification-friendly routines. Formalized in HOL Light, our results confirm the real-world applicability of relational verification in large assembly codebases.