6 ms·

Install PAC-MAN on Sequoia voting machine w/o breaking tamper-evident seals

129 points by finin 16y ago

jacquesm 16y ago
"We received the machine with the original tamper-evident seals intact. The software can be replaced without breaking any of these seals, simply by removing screws and opening the case." Ouch. Incompetence doesn't even begin to describe it. Or is this by design?
- ovi256 16y ago
  Could very well be security theater. Or maybe the researchers missed another layer of seals that protected the screws.
- limist 16y ago
  "What's inside the AVC Edge? It has a 486 SLE processor and 32 MB of RAM—similar specs to a 20-year-old PC. The election software is stored on an internal CompactFlash memory card. Modifying it is as simple as removing the card and inserting it into a PC." Seems to be a history of dubious competence for this machine and company: http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:vVOdcOpBZ_EJ:w2.eff.org/Activism/E-voting/20040818_sequoia_avc_edge_v0.8.pdf+sequoia+avc+edge&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESjhaOTNsoZUzCrBrCwzpVGX2LU5gtwvjm1wWeCnLdAgglQ8UhhRlyTAQHBGuvk39zoOQzDx1oShg6biPbFhYSSg5Q-O9kyEdIrvsrNw7yKORyq1eez_0rINvKuvvJHsIPK3wmYY&sig=AHIEtbSRJi1WRVDG0rlwkgZx2BFX_DfRFA http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:vVOdcOpBZ_EJ:w... http://sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Sequoia_AVC_Edge http://sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Sequoia_AVC_Edge
  - varjag 16y ago
    Mind you, this could be because they were - spending years on certification and legal compliance of hardware to many jurisdictions - already had an old and tried platform that is powerful enough to do the job Before anyone cries "obsolete", be aware that e.g. your Canon digital cameras run a DOS clone (ROM-DOS) on similar CPUs. You don't really have to have quad core everywhere just because you can. But of course it doesn't address the whole seals fiasco.
  - jacquesm 16y ago
    I'm not too shocked by the use of the processor, that may very well have something to do with reliability. You'd be surprised how demanding industry is in this respect, and it's not rare at all to find what you'd class as 'ancient' hardware when it comes to doing jobs where you have to make the results reliable. Not saying that was the case here, but it could be, also I'm imagining these boards might be run from a battery backed-up power supply so they may want to have them consume as little power as possible (that's a guess though, but I can imagine that if your election is in an area where there is a power failure you don't want to lose the results). Compare for instance with avionics and stuff on space flights. If crashing is not an option the rules about hardware change dramatically. It's a pity the article does not say whether the ram was ECC ram or not, that would be a hint that this is not just a way to be 'cheap'.
- electromagnetic 16y ago
  A good design would have riveted the machine shut, ensuring the only way in was through the tamper-evident seals. At work today (I work in construction) I managed to remove a latch & lock system from a door without damaging either part. I manipulated the door hook with the padlock on and loosened the top screws, which gave me enough room to remove the top two screws on the door frame latch, which gave me enough room to remove the two screws on the door hook. I then removed the bottom two on latch by using the new upward-slack. I forced the latch section around until the middle screw became loose, angled the latch and slowly removed the centre screw. I essentially just broke into the customer's garage with no signs of forced entry. Had the lock been installed properly (IE no slack in the system) it wouldn't have been easy to remove it with no signs of tampering. However it wasn't installed properly. Incidentally, one of the easiest ways to solve this problem is to take a drill bit and to strip the head of the screws. This leaves only manually forcing of the lock to open it, which takes a lot of effort if you're using 3 inch screws through a proper stud.
indrax 16y ago
Now make it so you have to eat the ghost labeled as the candidate you want to vote for, and it records the vote. I might actually go to the polls.
- zephjc 16y ago
  They should have hacked it to play Pole Position, where the winner of the race was the candidate who gets the vote.
- reitzensteinm 16y ago
  Alternatively, a 1 minute quiz on the constitution and/or your countries system of governance. Get all the answers right and you can vote!
  - tvon 16y ago
    That would require improving public education first.
  - khafra 16y ago
    I don't even need knowledge, just basic reasoning skills--I would prefer to have anybody who can answer a question about, say, the base rate fallacy[1] voting, even if they don't know the constitution. Hell, even if they're illiterate. [1] http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=12 http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=12
  - russell 16y ago
    Half a century ago, literacy tests and trick questions were widely used to keep blacks from voting. That's why it's illegal to do so now.
    - JoachimSchipper 16y ago
      Nowadays, the US repeals voting rights from those who have committed a felony, have a similar name to someone who's committed a felony, or live in the same neighborhood as people who conflict felonies. And who "just happen" to be black. Civilization has advanced - this is no longer widely accepted - but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen in, say, Florida.
seldo 16y ago
It is one of the curious facts of modern culture that the people who love technology the most also seem to be the most opposed to electronic voting. I think it's because the people who most understand how computers work also understand that no data can be considered trustworthy if somebody else has been in possession of the hardware. Yet governments continue to trust the impossible promises of the people who make voting machines that their machines are secure, despite a continuous stream of demonstrations to the contrary, both intentional and accidental.
- dandelany 16y ago
  I don't know that we're opposed to it in theory, it's just that every single implementation thus far has been terrifically bad. Making the code open source would go a long way, I think, as would establishing open working groups to establish security standards. I may be an optimist, but I do believe that theoretically (at least information-theoretically[1]), it can be done well. [1] http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Information-theoretically+secure+voting&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Information-theoreticall...
  - yummyfajitas 16y ago
    It's also fairly easy for us techies to grasp the hacking of computer systems. But we often forget how insecure and error prone paper systems can also be: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJfj9ySYg0Q http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJfj9ySYg0Q Massive voter fraud could be happening every election - it's pretty easy to vote fraudulently and there is almost no way to find out after the fact (I've done it unintentionally). For whatever reason, we are insanely afraid of hackers pushing an election over the edge, and yet we don't even ask for photo ID at the voting booth.
    - aristus 16y ago
      We're more concerned about electronic voting because it lowers the effort and manpower needed to defraud immensely.
tvon 16y ago
I suspect the only way to get the public's attention on voting machine security would be for a group (Anonymous?) to hack a major election in favor of a joke write-in candidate (Mickey Mouse, "None of the Above", Bill Murray).
- JacobAldridge 16y ago
  Definitely 'None of the Above' - I ran for student union president on a None of the Above ticket. The irony was lost (magnified?) when I drew top of the ballot paper, but ultimately my preferences (was a preferential style not first-past-the-post ballot) tipped the victorious president over in a cliffhanger election.
Derferman 16y ago
The Open Voting Consortium is working on an open-source solution that uses everyday PCs and printers instead of these ridiculously expensive voting machines. Their solution[1] is actually paper-based, allowing for increased accountability and transparency. The source is available here[2] although the project hasn't seen activity in quite some time, so I am not sure of the status of the code base. [1]: http://www.openvotingconsortium.org/our_solution http://www.openvotingconsortium.org/our_solution [2]: http://sourceforge.net/projects/evm2003/ http://sourceforge.net/projects/evm2003/
Sapslzr 16y ago
well, it works perfectly if what you want is steal an election...
jderick 16y ago
Support verified voting if you are concerned about electronic voting: http://verifiedvoting.org/ http://verifiedvoting.org/
kmfrk 16y ago
I can't imagine the horror of battling lobby groups and corporate interests to fix this on a federal scale.

129 points by finin 16y ago

"We received the machine with the original tamper-evident seals intact. The software can be replaced without breaking any of these seals, simply by removing screws and opening the case." Ouch. Incompetence doesn't even begin to describe it. Or is this by design?

ovi256 16y ago
Could very well be security theater. Or maybe the researchers missed another layer of seals that protected the screws.
limist 16y ago
"What's inside the AVC Edge? It has a 486 SLE processor and 32 MB of RAM—similar specs to a 20-year-old PC. The election software is stored on an internal CompactFlash memory card. Modifying it is as simple as removing the card and inserting it into a PC." Seems to be a history of dubious competence for this machine and company: http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:vVOdcOpBZ_EJ:w2.eff.org/Activism/E-voting/20040818_sequoia_avc_edge_v0.8.pdf+sequoia+avc+edge&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESjhaOTNsoZUzCrBrCwzpVGX2LU5gtwvjm1wWeCnLdAgglQ8UhhRlyTAQHBGuvk39zoOQzDx1oShg6biPbFhYSSg5Q-O9kyEdIrvsrNw7yKORyq1eez_0rINvKuvvJHsIPK3wmYY&sig=AHIEtbSRJi1WRVDG0rlwkgZx2BFX_DfRFA http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:vVOdcOpBZ_EJ:w... http://sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Sequoia_AVC_Edge http://sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Sequoia_AVC_Edge
- varjag 16y ago
  Mind you, this could be because they were - spending years on certification and legal compliance of hardware to many jurisdictions - already had an old and tried platform that is powerful enough to do the job Before anyone cries "obsolete", be aware that e.g. your Canon digital cameras run a DOS clone (ROM-DOS) on similar CPUs. You don't really have to have quad core everywhere just because you can. But of course it doesn't address the whole seals fiasco.
- jacquesm 16y ago
  I'm not too shocked by the use of the processor, that may very well have something to do with reliability. You'd be surprised how demanding industry is in this respect, and it's not rare at all to find what you'd class as 'ancient' hardware when it comes to doing jobs where you have to make the results reliable. Not saying that was the case here, but it could be, also I'm imagining these boards might be run from a battery backed-up power supply so they may want to have them consume as little power as possible (that's a guess though, but I can imagine that if your election is in an area where there is a power failure you don't want to lose the results). Compare for instance with avionics and stuff on space flights. If crashing is not an option the rules about hardware change dramatically. It's a pity the article does not say whether the ram was ECC ram or not, that would be a hint that this is not just a way to be 'cheap'.
electromagnetic 16y ago
A good design would have riveted the machine shut, ensuring the only way in was through the tamper-evident seals. At work today (I work in construction) I managed to remove a latch & lock system from a door without damaging either part. I manipulated the door hook with the padlock on and loosened the top screws, which gave me enough room to remove the top two screws on the door frame latch, which gave me enough room to remove the two screws on the door hook. I then removed the bottom two on latch by using the new upward-slack. I forced the latch section around until the middle screw became loose, angled the latch and slowly removed the centre screw. I essentially just broke into the customer's garage with no signs of forced entry. Had the lock been installed properly (IE no slack in the system) it wouldn't have been easy to remove it with no signs of tampering. However it wasn't installed properly. Incidentally, one of the easiest ways to solve this problem is to take a drill bit and to strip the head of the screws. This leaves only manually forcing of the lock to open it, which takes a lot of effort if you're using 3 inch screws through a proper stud.

indrax 16y ago

Now make it so you have to eat the ghost labeled as the candidate you want to vote for, and it records the vote. I might actually go to the polls.

zephjc 16y ago
They should have hacked it to play Pole Position, where the winner of the race was the candidate who gets the vote.
reitzensteinm 16y ago
Alternatively, a 1 minute quiz on the constitution and/or your countries system of governance. Get all the answers right and you can vote!
- tvon 16y ago
  That would require improving public education first.
- khafra 16y ago
  I don't even need knowledge, just basic reasoning skills--I would prefer to have anybody who can answer a question about, say, the base rate fallacy[1] voting, even if they don't know the constitution. Hell, even if they're illiterate. [1] http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=12 http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=12
- russell 16y ago
  Half a century ago, literacy tests and trick questions were widely used to keep blacks from voting. That's why it's illegal to do so now.
  - JoachimSchipper 16y ago
    Nowadays, the US repeals voting rights from those who have committed a felony, have a similar name to someone who's committed a felony, or live in the same neighborhood as people who conflict felonies. And who "just happen" to be black. Civilization has advanced - this is no longer widely accepted - but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen in, say, Florida.

seldo 16y ago

It is one of the curious facts of modern culture that the people who love technology the most also seem to be the most opposed to electronic voting. I think it's because the people who most understand how computers work also understand that no data can be considered trustworthy if somebody else has been in possession of the hardware. Yet governments continue to trust the impossible promises of the people who make voting machines that their machines are secure, despite a continuous stream of demonstrations to the contrary, both intentional and accidental.

dandelany 16y ago
I don't know that we're opposed to it in theory, it's just that every single implementation thus far has been terrifically bad. Making the code open source would go a long way, I think, as would establishing open working groups to establish security standards. I may be an optimist, but I do believe that theoretically (at least information-theoretically[1]), it can be done well. [1] http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Information-theoretically+secure+voting&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Information-theoreticall...
- yummyfajitas 16y ago
  It's also fairly easy for us techies to grasp the hacking of computer systems. But we often forget how insecure and error prone paper systems can also be: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJfj9ySYg0Q http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJfj9ySYg0Q Massive voter fraud could be happening every election - it's pretty easy to vote fraudulently and there is almost no way to find out after the fact (I've done it unintentionally). For whatever reason, we are insanely afraid of hackers pushing an election over the edge, and yet we don't even ask for photo ID at the voting booth.
  - aristus 16y ago
    We're more concerned about electronic voting because it lowers the effort and manpower needed to defraud immensely.

tvon 16y ago

I suspect the only way to get the public's attention on voting machine security would be for a group (Anonymous?) to hack a major election in favor of a joke write-in candidate (Mickey Mouse, "None of the Above", Bill Murray).

JacobAldridge 16y ago
Definitely 'None of the Above' - I ran for student union president on a None of the Above ticket. The irony was lost (magnified?) when I drew top of the ballot paper, but ultimately my preferences (was a preferential style not first-past-the-post ballot) tipped the victorious president over in a cliffhanger election.

Derferman 16y ago

The Open Voting Consortium is working on an open-source solution that uses everyday PCs and printers instead of these ridiculously expensive voting machines. Their solution[1] is actually paper-based, allowing for increased accountability and transparency. The source is available here[2] although the project hasn't seen activity in quite some time, so I am not sure of the status of the code base. [1]: http://www.openvotingconsortium.org/our_solution http://www.openvotingconsortium.org/our_solution [2]: http://sourceforge.net/projects/evm2003/ http://sourceforge.net/projects/evm2003/

Sapslzr 16y ago

well, it works perfectly if what you want is steal an election...

jderick 16y ago

Support verified voting if you are concerned about electronic voting: http://verifiedvoting.org/ http://verifiedvoting.org/

kmfrk 16y ago

I can't imagine the horror of battling lobby groups and corporate interests to fix this on a federal scale.