VST-A: A Foundationally Sound Annotation Verifier

An interactive program verification tool usually requires users to write formal proofs in a theorem prover like Coq and Isabelle, which is an obstacle for most software engineers. In comparison, annotation verifiers can use assertions in source files as hints for program verification but they themselves do not have a formal soundness proof. In this paper, we demonstrate VST-A, a foundationally sound annotation verifier for sequential C programs. On one hand, users can write high order assertion in C programs' comments. On the other hand, separation logic proofs will be generated in the backend whose proof rules are formally proved sound w.r.t. CompCert's Clight semantics. Residue proof goals in Coq may be generated if some assertion entailments cannot be verified automatically