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Voting Machine Attacks Proven To Be Practical

An anonymous reader writes "Every time a bunch of academics show vulnerabilities in electronic voting machines, critics complain that the attacks aren't realistic, that attackers won't have access to source code, or design documents, or be able to manipulate the hardware, etc. So this time a bunch of computer scientists from UCSD, Michigan, and Princeton offered a rebuttal. They completely own the AVC Advantage using no access to source code or design documents (PDF), and deliver a complete working attack in a plug-in cartridge that could be used by anyone with a few private minutes with the machine. Moreover, they came up with some cool tricks to do this on a machine protected against traditional code injection attacks (the AVC processor will only execute instructions from ROM). The research was presented at this week's USENIX EVT."

2 of 225 comments (clear)

  1. Still not fair. by MartinSchou · · Score: 5, Funny

    What these "intellectuals" and "researchers" have to keep in mind, is that in reality, no one would ever dream of committing election fraud.

    We all live in a utopia, where everyone has equal say, no one would ever coerce others and there's a kitten on every lap. That's why there are no such things as secret ballots. In every voting booth there will be three heavily armed guards who will watch you vote to ensure that you won't be doing anything you shouldn't do.

    Have a cotton candy, drink your beer and turn on the TV. The shiny shiny is on again, you like that. You have always liked that.

    </sarcasm>

  2. Re:If they own it, whats the problem? by A.+B3ttik · · Score: 5, Funny

    That seems to have gone right over your head.

    The irony here is palpable.