Runtime Verification of Remotely Executed Code using Probabilistically Checkable Proof Systems

In this paper we consider the verification and certification of computations that are done remotely. We investigate the use of probabilistically checkable proof (PCP) systems for efficiently certifying such computations. This model can also be applied to verifying security proofs of software downloads. To make the use of PCPs more practical, a new version of Cook’s Theorem is given for the RAM model: that is, we show that a correct computation of a RAM can be encoded as a satisfiable boolean formula. We use this result to show that the implementations of PCPs no longer need to be based on a description of the desired computation in terms of a Turing machine program.