3.14.7e

Verification methods have varying degrees of rigor in determining the correctness of software, firmware, and hardware components. For example, formal verification involves proving that a software program satisfies some formal property or set of properties. The nature of formal verification is generally time-consuming and not employed for commercial operating systems and applications. Therefore, it would likely only be applied to some very limited uses, such as verifying cryptographic protocols. However, in cases where software, firmware, or hardware components exist with formal verification of the component’s security properties, such components provide greater assurance and trustworthiness and are preferred over similar components that have not been formally verified. [SP 800-160-1] provides guidance on developing trustworthy, secure, and cyber resilient systems using systems security engineering practices and security design concepts.