Request for Information (RFI): Verification and Compliance Checking for Natural-Language Network Requirements (FastVacc)
DARPA is seeking information on tools and methods for rapidly converting natural-language network security requirements into verifiable forms and checking concrete network configurations for compliance, with human-understandable outputs.
⚑ RFI/Special Notice: informational input only, not a funding opportunity. · Applicant restrictions: federal contract; universities are not direct applicants. · Defense/national security context. · Seeks near-real-time compliance checking from natural-language requirements with human-understandable outputs.
Unit fits — one characterization, each unit's own rules
| Tom Love Innovation Hub | 45 partial | funds applied research; prototyping/demonstration stage; deep-tech content |
| IPPRA | 15 none | university cannot apply directly (ineligible) |
| Physical Sciences & Engineering (demo) | 15 none | university cannot apply directly (ineligible) |
Description
Modern networks need to be reconfigured quickly in response to mission changes or emerging threats, but checking compliance with security requirements can take months. This creates a window in which adversaries may exploit vulnerabilities introduced by those changes. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) seeks information on approaches, tools and practices for closing that window by reducing, by 2-3 orders of magnitude, the time and cost of verifiable compliance checking. DARPA envisions a capability that would take as input two items: (a) a requirements document written in natural language and (b) the configurations in a concrete network. In an offline phase, it would reason about the requirements for inconsistency, redundancy and incompleteness, and output consistent, non-redundant and completed requirements. Then, it would check, in near real-time, whether the concrete configurations satisfy all of the requirements. In all cases, its output would be understandable by a human.
Eligibility
Applicant restrictions (federal contract). Set-aside: . Notice type: Special Notice. Organization: DEPT OF DEFENSE / DEFENSE ADVANCED RESEARCH PROJECTS AGENCY (DARPA) / DEF ADVANCED RESEARCH PROJECTS AGCY.
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