Propositional Logics of Overwhelming Truth

Cryptographers consider that asymptotic security holds when, for any possible attacker running in polynomial time, the probability that the attack succeeds is negligible, i.e. that it tends fast enough to zero with the size of secrets. In order to reason formally about cryptographic truth, one may thus consider logics where a formula is satisfied when it is true with overwhelming probability, i.e. a probability that tends fast enough to one with the size of secrets. In such logics it is not always the case that either ϕ or ⌝ϕ is satisfied by a given model. However, security analyses will inevitably involve specific formulas, which we call determined, satisfying this property - typically because they are not probabilistic. The Squirrel proof assistant, which implements a logic of overwhelming truth, features ad-hoc proof rules for this purpose. In this paper, we study several propositional logics whose semantics rely on overwhelming truth. We first consider a modal logic of overwhelming truth, and show that it coincides with S5. In addition to providing an axiomatization, this brings a well-behaved proof system for our logic in the form of Poggiolesi’s hypersequent calculus. Further, we show that this system can be adapted to elegantly incorporate reasoning on determined atoms. We then consider a logic that is closer to Squirrel’s language, where the overwhelming truth modality cannot be nested. In that case, we show that a simple proof system, based on regular sequents, is sound and complete. This result justifies the core of Squirrel’s proof system.