Project Everest: Perspectives from Developing Industrial-Grade High-Assurance Software

Abstract

Project Everest began at Microsoft Research in 2016, aiming to spur research in program verification to produce industrial-grade software. In collaboration with INRIA and Carnegie Mellon University, Project Everest’s goal was to produce drop-in verified replacements of secure communications software used in the HTTPS ecosystem, including TLS, the underlying cryptography, and related subprotocols. Now, almost a decade later, we reflect on the project, sharing both its successes and failures, and look ahead to the next decade of program verification research.