Worst Ever Security Flaw in Diebold Voting Machine

WhiteDragon writes "The folks at Open Voting Foundation got their hands on a Diebold AccuVote TS touchscreen voting machine. They took it apart (pictures here), and found the most serious security flaw ever discovered in this machine. A single switch is all that is required to cause the machine to boot an unverified external flash instead of the built-in, verified EEPROM."

Comments

Re:Lever action!

[markwalling]

my district switched to electronic from lever based. in 2004, at 715 when i voted on lever machines, there was no line, and just about as many signatures in the book. in 2005, the line was out the door and around the corner at the same time. the person in front of me took 5 minutes to use the electronic machine. people knew how to use the old machines, and they were reliable. these new things take the old people for ever to use, and then they complain that they were hard to read...

Re:About the only way they'll ever "fix" these thi

[PeeAitchPee]

Not so sure about that. Here in Maryland, our (Republican) governor budgeted $20,000,000 to allow us to use paper ballots instead of the Diebold crap -- and he was shot down by our State Senate (democrat)and prinicpally by our State Administrator of Elections, who claimed that going back to old-style ballots would "stifle development."

I'm sure you can find the parties flip-flopped in other states. The point is that if a) people actually gave a shit and b) people really understood the issue instead of blindly assuming "computer = good, paper = bad," any cronyist jackass who supported Diebold would get booted stratight out of office next election -- assuming their evil scheme hadn't yet been implemented. ;-)

Re:Diebold lobbied slashdot...

[Da_Weasel]

I beg to differ. I belive this is the worst security flaw yet:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8112825559 202389150&q=hacking+the+vote

re: the other party

[BitterAndDrunk]

Call me Machiavellian, but I'd wager this goes across party lines. Self interest of those in power to maintain said power. Just as gerrymandering isn't a one party phenomenon, neither is vote-rigging. (1968 democrats, possibly 2000 and 2004 republicans)

This is NOT a reason to register absentee

[WillAffleckUW]

Because absentee voters get a paper ballot that is not only delivered by a trusted source - the US Post Office - who have a verified date/time stamp - and that the ballots can be audited, traced, and verified - now THAT is a reason to register permanent absentee.

Today.

Re:wrong question

[idesofmarch]

I missed the computer programmer. When did he talk? There was a bit about Diebold in the beginning, but nothing about the programming of the machine.

Re:When Will Politicians Wake Up?

[Thuktun]

From one of the linked pages:

• Broward Co., FL - ES&S software on their machines only reads 32,000 votes at a precinct then it starts counting backwards (see this update): http://www.news4jax.com/politics/3890292/detail.ht ml
• # Guilford Co., NC - ES&S equipment "could report only about 32,600 early and absentee results". This seems very similar to the case above, (see this update) save that Guilford Co. uses optical scan for it absentee voting and may use the older Votronic system for early voting (although it would make a more consistent story if they used optical scan for all absentee and early voting).: http://newsobserver.com/news/story/1852104p-817980 2c.html
  

How interesting. Counting on a 16-bit signed integer (two's complement) and dropping the sign during formatting would do that:

7FFB => 32763
7FFC => 32764
7FFD => 32765
7FFE => 32766
7FFF => 32767
8000 => 32768
8001 => 32767
8002 => 32766
8003 => 32765
8004 => 32764
8005 => 32763

Re:Diebold lobbied slashdot...

[nido]

... and a low incidence of the ability to reason clearly, that is the problem with the US electorate.

This is why it's important to subvert a country's system of education first, before taking over the rest of the government.

Horace Mann (instigator of the compulsory government school) was much enamored with the Prussian system of schooling, which inspired in the subjects passive obedience to the government (source: Two Hundred Years of American Educational Thought, by Henry J. Perkinson). He thought he could take the good parts of the system without the bad. Haha...

... But his [Mann's] contention is that this spirit of the system is separable from the manner of teaching itself. And here American teachers can learn much.

The Prussian schoolmaster, he [Mann] discovered, combined complete mastery of subject matter with superb pedagogical finesse. They taught from "the head," never relying on a textbook. Beginning not with abstract theories -- neither principles, rules, nor axioms -- but with objects and phenomena familiar to each child, these master teachers encompassed elements of reading, spelling, writing, grammar, drawing, and general information into every lesson. Students in the Prussian schools, unhampered by the artificial formalisms of rote memorization, enjoyed learning; the liked their teachers and held them in high esteem. The teachers rarely used physical punishment; they secured discipline through the affection and respect -- even awe -- the students had for them. The Prussian schoolmaster was the complete authority; children unquestionably accepted and believed what he said.

Horace Mann dreamed of making American teachers as authroitative as their Prussian counterparts. ... (Perkinson pg. 77. Italics in original, bold my emphasis)

See also John Gatto's Underground History of American Education. Gatto tells us in his works that a Prussian "education" is exactly what we receive in the standardized government school experience.

So remember: The purpose of government schooling is the installation of obedience in the population, so the masses won't mutiny when word gets out that we're being screwed (this story also) in a dog-and-pony-show sorta way.