Update on Project 7: Security

Cody Gunton - October 14, 2026

https://codygunton.github.io/talks-and-writing/2026-10-14-zkevm-breakout/

QR code to slides

Testing of Standards

zkevm-test-monitor:#35 testing of zkevm-standards beyond ISA compliance.

Hash collision mitigations in guests

@LukaszRozmej of Nethermind described a DoS attack on 8025 provers. He makes the case for zkVMs to provide a per-proof construction source of randomness as the solution this security problem here.

  • Seeding with new_payload_request_root was proposed as a mitigation, but it is not a complete solution.
  • FOCIL undermines the "builder won't DoS itself" rationale that this is issue goes away if we adopt "prover killer killer" strategy in an eventual mandatory proofs spec.
  • zkevm-standards:#42: hosts provides unconstrained randomness.
  • zkevm-test-monitor:49: accompanying tests
  • openvm:3165: demo implementation for OpenVM

Formally Proving RISC-V Compliance of ZisK

https://github.com/eth-act/zisk-fv

Additional strengthening of zisk-fv:

Soundcalc

STIR support will land in #90, which is already approved by Benedict Wagner.

Improvements in Verified-zkEVM libraries

Thanks for your attention!

TODO: this month's progress