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UVB-76 Explained
Useful Wheat writes "Recently slashdot covered the reappearance of UVB-76. The function of the mysterious transmitter has been revealed: UVB-76 is used to transfer orders to military personnel, along with the time at which they should be executed. 'Words for the radio messages and code tables are selected mainly from the scientific terms of chemistry (Brohman), Geology (ganomatit), philology (Izafat), geography (Bong), Zoology (kariama), history (Scythian), cooking (drying), sports (krolist) and others, as well as rare Russian words (glashatel).' The page continues to list all 23 transmissions that have been made from the station in the past, showing that UVB-76 may be more active than believed."
so....so the Ruskies are running SkyNet?
Living With a Nerd
Uhh.. wikipedia only states that it's speculation; like everything else about UVB-76, this is unconfirmed.. so in reality it still isn't explained. What a crappy submission.
So it must be true then!
Just remember - if the world didn't suck, we would all fall off.
for borscht just got a whole lot sexier.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely. indymedia
Is the basis for this story really the Wikipedia page which cites as its primary source a Geocities web site?
Forgive me for being skeptical.
A wikipedia page, and a link to an old slashdot article. My, it's good to have standards in what goes on the front page.
Despite much speculation, the actual purpose of this station remains unknown to the public, but it is probably used for relaying military orders.
Later in the article there is a section speculating about military use but that's all using an old geocities page (in Russian) found in web archive. Would be good if there was something a little more authorative on the subject.
Good thing I got all my romanticized daydreaming out of the way yesterday, about what an enigma UVB-76 was, and how awesome it is that even as recently as 40 years ago we were creating "artifacts" that would remain mysteries into the modern day (and possibly forever). Thanks for ruining that for me.
re: "geography (Bong)"
Is this code given out at 4:20?
You: Gorgeous redhead, red dress, big brown eyes, smile like an angel.
Me: Nerdy-looking guy in torn dungarees and blue T-shirt
You came up to me in Starbucks at 47th St. and Eighth Ave. and said in a golden voice, "Excuse me, but haven't we met in California last year?"
I said, "Uh, yeah. maybe."
You turned around and disappeared on Eighth Ave.
Please, please call me on UVB-76.
Must be an extremely slow news day when you have to copy the content from Wikipedia and
UVB-76. Aren't there more interesting stories ( ie. Petraeus' admission of
a U.S. negotiated settlement in Afghanistan) or were the Slashbot editors consumed with shorting their S & P 500 futures contracts?
Yours In Minsk,
Kilgore Trout
In soviet Russia Speculations from wikipedia issue orders to you
This shit is worse than the cesspool refuse that kdawson posts. Fuck you.
This particular submission may be crap, but the situation around UVB-76 demonstrates that it is becoming hard to keep any secrets on the shortwave band. There are thousands of listeners at any given time. And what is much more important, they now have the ability to record big chunks of spectrum and analyze it in a way that was only available to government agencies not long ago. $500 receiver (there are even sub-$100 DIY alternatives) and free software is all you need. /.
The next big step is exchange of such information. It may be outright illegal (UK) or borderline legal (US) to tell other what you've heard, but people do this more and more on various forums. Now including
According to an old Geocities page, they are things that fly around in the sky.
No shit it's orders for Russian troops. The mystery remains: what orders?
"Choosing to refrain from producing another person demonstrates a profound love for all life" [vhemt.org]
We were having a discussion in Russian on the blog page, and the guy who was answering seems to believe that there are 15 levels divided into 6 zones each under the station.
Definite fodder for the theorists among us. But yeah, seems to be another Numbers Station that we probably won't know anything about, seeing as it's 40ish clicks from Moscow, making it a protected installation.
Pardon me... I have to go fashion my tin-foil hat.
...don't broadcast it. "Secrets on the shortwave band" just seems like an oxymoron.
for the military personnel that will be executed just because somebody send them an order.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
It was listening!
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It's actually a psychological attack on the West. The numbers and such are completely random and meaningless, they're trying to make all the amateur radio guys paranoid, chasing their own tails trying to figure out what it all means OMG TEH COMMIES!!!!11!
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
A military broadcast from a military base was for military personnel? I'm shocked I tell you, shocked.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Are you talking about this?
That's hilarious. My favorite part is that he's getting charged for "carrying a dangerous weapon while under the influence" -- oh, sure, carry dangerous weapons all you want, but no drinking.
Hell, I didn't even think you could drink in Utah. Might that not lead to dancing or something? :-P
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Occam's Razor:
Option A) The numbers station UVB-76, in operation for almost 30 years, was used solely to send a grand total of 23 military orders of very short length.
Option B) The numbers station UVB-76, is used to fuck with the West. Military orders are broadcast on Russian cable TV.
I have to say, I am leaning toward option B.
So, the end of the wiki suggests maybe this is related to ionosphere studies. Has anyone correlated this with solar activity? Two hypotheses to test: 1) people only poke the system when the solar activity is interesting or 2) high solar activity takes out some other form of comm and UVB is the backup channel.
This seems rather odd, broadcasting military orders in the clear. OK, they are using a code. So we don't know what they are saying. But military units usually have encrypted transceivers. If I were designing a military radio system, I would not include a clear broadcast mode to eliminate the possibility of some critical information going out that could be easily intercepted.
I'm guessing that these broadcasts are targeted at people who can not reasonably be expected to carry secure radio gear with them. Like spys. In some countries, possessing crypto equipment can get you arrested. In many, it will attract undue attention. So they use shortwave. Everyone can get their hands on a shortwave receiver. And there's always the plausible deniability of tuning to BBC when you're not receiving orders.
The continuity of the broadcasts can easily be explained as a method to thwart traffic analysis. Most of the stuff they broadcast is garbage, just to keep the traffic going. If one broadcasts only when orders are to be sent, then the enemy can deduce that something is afoot when traffic picks up. Its possible that UVB-76 may not have issued an order for years, but is being kept alive 'just in case'. If they only powered up the transmitter when they needed it, that would be a dead giveaway that sleeper agents were being activated.
Have gnu, will travel.
I believe that this numbers station is actually a countdown timer for the army of robots created by the soviets in the 80s. When the buzzing sounds end and another codephrase is sent the army will rise up from their vaults that were placed strategically around the world by traveling vacuum salesmen and spread the glorious message of communism, with lasers.
I for one welcome our new robot overlords...
Personally I'd rather have my idiots at home glued to the TV than out doing idiotic things
As someone who has written his fair share of military orders over the years, and then subsequently transmitted them over a radio, this is highly unlikely to be a military orders station - and for one basic reason:
An order broadcast into the aether is useless. An order must be confirmed as having been received and understood.
Where's the "Ack"?
DG
Want to learn about race cars? Read my Book
I doesn't seem like anyone has attempted to find digital data in the 'buzz' described in the article. If you look at this spectrograph, you'll see that the buzz consists of many discrete tones, not just a simple buzzing sound. This looks to me like an implementation of one of many multitone digital modes like MT63, MFSK16, Olivia, Throb, Piccolo, Domino, etc used on HF.
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
OK, the submission is a pile of BS, but it's a good place to discuss UVB-76. So...
I have been wondering if anyone has looked at the frequency of the beeps themselves. They're about a second or two apart, but do they vary at all? It occurs to me that the average beat timing could be a carrier, and a (very slow) frequency modulation on top of it would be a subtle way to inject other messages.
Anyone?
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
...don't broadcast it. "Secrets on the shortwave band" just seems like an oxymoron.
Ever heard of something called a cipher? Or stenography? A combination of both?
The codes read out on UVB-76 are a bunch of unrelated words and numbers, which reminds me of the codes we'd use back when I played rugby, and similar to how baseball codes work. Most of the content of our calls were nonsense, thrown in to confuse it. We'd designate ahead of time, for example, that the third and fifth words were the meaningful ones, or simply mix in non-code words with the codes, although there was always some syntax (order mattered). Similarly we'd memorize calls our opponents used in lineouts and scrums, and try to parse them out at halftime. A halftime code crack almost always meant winning the game by a good margin.
So my guess is that not all of the UVB-76 code is meaningful, but there's an underlying template which is probably switched between transmissions. Still crackable, but can it be cracked before the game is over?
"The ability to delude yourself may be an important survival tool" - Jane Wagner -
UVB-76 must be the new and improved version of the CRM-114.
Peace On Earth
Well, "Footloose" was filmed there...
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Yeah, I have, and they don't change the fact that exposing information to people that don't need it is just stupid. You can avoid the risks of having your message decrypted or extracted by not exposing it to attack. You can avoid hostile signal analysis by not sending. Often, a recipient doesn't need to know the specific content of a message--just the simple fact that it was sent is useful, potentially damaging information. Ever heard of Tempest? Covert timing channels? Or a combination of both?
Seriously... this must be a red herring. By paying attention to this stupid thing, we are missing the the real information. using such a well known radio transmission for anything real makes about as much sense as robbing a bank after you have given them your account information.
I think you've been reading too much Le Carré. Time to file away that old copy of Grimmelshausen.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
Apparently the Geocities article is in reference to UZB-76, not UVB-76.
An hour or something ago there were good and significant tags attached to this story like "!explained". Now it's vacuous blah blah like "encryption". Is there some sort of censorship going on?
When I read the Wikipedia article the first thing I thought was that it would be great way to hog resources from *other* spy agencies. Like MI6 and CIA. It makes a lot of sense financially, operating a station like UVB-76 is cheap in Russia! They are using Soviet-era transmitters and those are built to last. Most likely the operating costs of that station consist mainly the electricity and wages of couple technicians who maintain the equipment and the facility itself. Perhaps the electricity is free for military installations in Russia so all they have to do is to recycle some 40 year old spare parts and pay $15k per year for a couple of technicians. That would make UVB-76 operating costs less than $100k per year!
Let me guess what the other side is doing: it is more than likely that each "number station" has its own department in western spy agencies which employs at least ten people. I don't think that they are working with the beginners salary, most likely those men and women have a lot of experience and their wages are somewhere between $80k-$150k per year. The information they produce from that complete nonsense is still nonsense, yet it is also hogging resources when it is passed to the higher levels on their agencies. See the equation now? Every rouble that is spent keeping that station on air is converted directly to negative USD, Euro and Pound at the same time. There is no risk losing any agents or secrets and yet they know that some bright minds are completely tied on that nonsense, now what could be better way to literally *attack* other spy agencies?
Running a number station is a very effective way to employ the *other* side and bleed their resources from the real business that is going on that shadowy world of theirs.
Would it be bad idea to play the numbers in these transmissions as my lottery numbers?
The premise of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
The purpose is quite straightforward, anything spoken into the uvb-76 mic is automatically posted to wikipedia within 24 hours, it's like a russian Twitter.
Skynet emerged from a VB Trojan in a very infected PC.
If so, Slashdot is not the only organization that does it. Fox broadcasts American Idol, and a thousand Slashdotters complain about how it demonstrates the emptiness of American culture. Fox News broadcasts easily parodied "news" and a million Daily Show viewers laugh at how dumb and desperate American conservatives are. In the meantime, the owners of News Corp are carrying out their real mission with little notice.
....that I started a thread about it on Wikipedia Review.
Mr. Malda, you're not as smart as you think you are.
Final proof someone in the Russian military has a good sense of humour, they saw their nice ionosphere sounder and thought... "hm we could broadcast a code on this which means nothing... and watch the rest of the world (including our own sigint) spend decades trying to work out what it means"
One day it will broadcast... "fooled you!" then go silent for the rest of time...
(Either that or someone started the programme off and left a note saying do not turn off. Only problem was they forgot to put that they only meant do not turn off for a few days as a soak test)
--- Users are like bacteria -> Each one causing a thousand tiny crises until the host finally gives up and dies.
You can listen to the Conet Project's recording of the station here : http://irdial.hyperreal.org/the%20conet%20project/disc%204/tcp_d4_32_the_buzzer_irdial.mp3
Entertaining listen...
**Vanuatu or bust**
I really think you should re-consider using Wikipedia as "the only trustable source", especially regarding deep/dark stuff like that. Imagine that, it is a culture which have people living like a normal guy with family for decades until "activated".
These "signal stations" is something really deep and all agreed that these things are in use by elite spies, simply unbreakable "one time pad" crypto using military and high level CIA etc. guys.
They also go/up down, seemingly random. If something is brought back to life in a particular area, people have reason to get a bit paranoid.
Side channel attacks are applicable to any form of communication, either on the airwaves or by hacking into a system and get timing information from CPU spikes (assuming you can tap into the encrypting hardware). Cryptanalysis is cryptanalysis no matter the medium, and it won't do you any good to just stare or sample the signal (not unless the signal is using a poorly chosen cipher). You need a few more pieces to get the cracking going.
Yes, communication is secure the most when it does not take place. But that's an oxymoron statement of security. When you have (and you must at some point), it won't deter you just because of the possibility Oscar is listening, will it?
You always assume the attacker knows the encryption/decryption algorithms; you always assume the channel can be tapped; and you always assume the attacker can get a piece of plain text and its matching cipher text. Always. You never rely on the physical isolation of the channel.
You rely on the key. You will a good cipher resistant to plain text and cipher text attacks (according to your security needs); you will use a *good* key, and you will secure it (security is always in the key).
If the safety of your encrypted channel depends fundamentally on the insulation of your signal, there is something wrong with your security mechanism.
Number stations work in a very different way than you may think. It is close to the way Bin Laden is said to communicate with his cells. You know, if he really uses basic "snail mail" carried with donkeys, good luck with your satellites.
Only 2 guys on whole universe can understand the message. Sender and receiver as they are the only ones who knows/have access to the particular "one time pad" used.
It doesn't really matter how many billions of people can have a SW radio. There is no computer/technology to break it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_time_pad
The third voice message has what may be a gps location in the Caspian Sea
Nuclear sub?
Sigh.
I don't know about you but at least I enjoyed the article and the discussion here, which is the top reason I read Slashdot. This is (or was) his project after all, he can do whatever he wants. If the quality of submissions matter to you, why don't you submit something more relevant stories yourself?
That actually happens. See this story and this infographic.
For all the curious types. Here is a series of pictures claiming to be from inside of the UVB-76 station. The authenticity is not guarranteed and readinbg the Russian inscriptions on the pictures does not provide any hard evidence it actually is the station. It might be any old military/comms building of the days long gone. Some inscriptions have been redacted... which still does not prove anything. See for yourselves: http://englishrussia.com/index.php/2010/08/28/inside-the-mysterious-uvb-76-station -- insignificant
The institute webpage that features the Buzzer frequency is simply using a constant known signal that is transmitted on 4625 khz. The buzzer has been transmitted on that frequency for decades as is a standard set frequency and know quantity. The institute is simply using it as a set and unvariable standard. The purpose of UVB-76 is a simple and effective command and control broadcast. The frequency used as constant indicates its purpose is within the Moscow Oblast region. If it used higher HF or regularly switched for propagation conditions then it would serve a purpose outside the region that it is located.
UVB-76 is not the only Russian command and control broadcast that utilises a unique and constant carrier in order to keep the frequency maintained and open. These other known broadcast networks are regularly active in the same codeword message format exhibited by UVB-76. The clue is in the traffic sent. The only mystery about UVB-76 is that the codewords broadcast are few and infrequent compared to others.
All the Russian broadcasts follow the same pattern with their codeword and priority traffic. The carrier is interupted and the codeword is sent. Note the codeword traffic sent on UVB-76
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UVB-76
Note the codeword format used. UVB-76 93 882 NAIMINA 74 14 35 74
It is exactly the same format as used on other Russian military networks in both Morse and Voice.
Dedicated radio enthusiasts have been monitoring these Russian Military networks for years and building up the picture. It is a tried and tested, simple and effective command and control system used by all Russian forces. This includes the Russian Civil Defense network now superseded by the Ministry of Emergency Situations in the 1990s.
The flash message pattern as transmitted on UVB-76 follow the same format as observed on other Russian networks. The same format is used on the other Russian voice networks such as 'Squeaky Wheel' and 'The Pip'. See later links.
Example of Morse codeword traffic
RCV 43243 SHOLAST 5301 3473
REA4 01293 BALANVA 1958 4088
RDL 82024 75205 BROMNYJ 1346 1872
http://www.cvni.net/radio/nsnl/nsnl133/nsnl133mil.html
http://www.cvni.net/radio/nsnl/nsnl129/nsnl129mil.html
http://www.cvni.net/radio/nsnl/nsnl105/nsnl105mil.html
As you can see the frequency range covers all the the HF band. Note the VLF transmissions in order to broadcast to submerged submarines. One of the most active carrier maintained stations is REA4. Unlike UVB-76 is utilises a number of HF frequencies. The frequencies in use are maintained with revolutions. REA4 is probably the most active Russian Morse broadcast that regularly sends flash priority traffic in the same format as UVB-76. The radio enthusiasts who monitor the Russian networks regularly note the codeword activity being passed over the networks within an active time frame. Passed down from a broadcast and noted on simplex and complex networks with outstations repeating back the codewords in order for the control to verify correct receipt.
You can see from Russian radio scanner forum that some of the Russian conscripts knew of the Buzzer being set up on their radios. The radios were located in military bases in the Moscow Defence Region and fulfilled an emergency communications system.
http://www.radioscanner.ru/forum/topic12415.html
Remember that the Buzzer isn't the only broadcast station in Russia that sends out the same format voice messages. Other stations such as the 'Squeaky Wheel' and 'The Pip' also function in the same manner.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8LQMDQAoVk
The Squeaky wheel