Kani Harness Gen

kani-harness-gen

Generate #[kani::proof] harnesses for formal verification of Rust cryptographic code.

This skill is user-triggered only. It must never be auto-invoked by the audit router or any other skill. It consumes significant computation resources (default timeout: 5 minutes per harness via KANI_TIMEOUT_SECONDS).

When to Use

• User explicitly requests Kani verification
• User invokes this skill by name
• A Phase 2 finding needs stronger formal proof beyond the standard compilable PoC test

When NOT to Use

• Never auto-trigger from audit flow
• Never run without explicit user request
• Code is not Rust
• cargo-kani is not installed (detect and warn)

Prerequisites

Before generating harnesses, verify cargo-kani is available:

cargo kani --version 2>/dev/null || echo "ERROR: cargo-kani not installed. Install from https://github.com/model-checking/kani"

If not installed, inform the user and stop.

Core Harness Categories

1. Field arithmetic — a * inverse(a) == 1 for all non-zero a
2. No-panic — function does not panic for any input within type bounds
3. Serialization roundtrip — deserialize(serialize(x)) == x
4. Constraint soundness — satisfying witness implies valid statement
5. State invariants — API pre/post-conditions and rejection behavior over bounded inputs

Limits

• Kani does not prove constant-time behavior or model timing/microarchitectural side channels.
• kani::assume constrains input space; it does not provide timing-side-channel guarantees.
• For timing analysis, route to side-channel-auditor (and supporting tools like dudect/ctgrind).

Budget and Fallback Controls

• Override harness timeout with KANI_TIMEOUT_SECONDS (default 300)
• Keep unwind bounds explicit in harness code so run cost remains predictable
• Use optional PROPTEST_CASES for lightweight proptest fallback checks when Kani is unavailable or too expensive

Workflow

Phase 1: Identify verification targets

• Read the code under audit
• Identify functions with formal-verification-worthy properties
• Read references/kani-checklist.md for pre-generation checks

Phase 2: Generate harnesses

• Read references/harness-patterns.md for templates
• Generate #[kani::proof] functions tailored to the target code
• Set appropriate #[kani::unwind(N)] bounds
• Write harnesses to a test file in the target project

Phase 3: Execute and interpret

• Run cargo kani --harness {name} with KANI_TIMEOUT_SECONDS (default 300 seconds)
• If verification succeeds: property holds for all inputs within bounds
• If counterexample found: extract the failing input as PoC evidence
• If Kani is unavailable, run targeted proptest checks (bounded by PROPTEST_CASES) and clearly label evidence type
• Report results for use by crypto-fp-check

Output Contract

Produce Kani verification results that include:

• The harness code generated
• The property being verified
• PASS (property holds) or FAIL (counterexample found)
• If FAIL: the counterexample input values for PoC evidence
• The kani::unwind bound used and its coverage implications

Reference Index

• [references/kani-checklist.md](references/kani-checklist.md)
• [references/harness-patterns.md](references/harness-patterns.md)

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: Yue-Zhou1
• Source: Yue-Zhou1/zkcrypto-audit
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.