On the Protocol Composition Logic PCL

Abstract

A recent development in formal security protocol analysis is the Protocol Composition Logic (PCL). We identify a number of problems with this logic as well as with extensions of the logic, as defined in [DDMP05,HSD+05,He05,Dat05,Der06,DDMR07]. The identified problems imply strong restrictions on the scope of PCL, and imply that some currently claimed PCL proofs cannot be proven within the logic, or make use of unsound axioms. Where possible, we propose solutions for these problems.