Security Analysis of the Diebold AccuVote-TS Voting Machine

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Research by Ariel J. Feldman, J. Alex Halderman, and Edward W. Felten

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Abstract: This paper presents a fully independent security study of a Diebold AccuVote-TS voting machine, including its hardware and software. We obtained the machine from a private party. Analysis of the machine, in light of real election procedures, shows that it is vulnerable to extremely serious attacks. For example, an attacker who gets physical access to a machine or its removable memory card for as little as one minute could install malicious code; malicious code on a machine could steal votes undetectably, modifying all records, logs, and counters to be consistent with the fraudulent vote count it creates. An attacker could also create malicious code that spreads automatically and silently from machine to machine during normal election activities — a voting-machine virus. We have constructed working demonstrations of these attacks in our lab. Mitigating these threats will require changes to the voting machine's hardware and software and the adoption of more rigorous election procedures.


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Channel: Howto & Style
Uploaded: September 13, 2006 at 5:06 pm
Author: jkeroes

Length: 00:09:28
Rating: 4.26
Views: 41597

Tags: diebold accuvote accuvotets princeton Feldman Halderman Felten vote voting election fraud steal stealing virus virii

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Video Comments:
GamePro0012 (November 12, 2008 at 3:26 pm)
Well, they're going to have to recall these voting machines!
feardia (June 25, 2008 at 7:50 pm)
They only had these machines in the east of ireland for the eu treaty vote, there they got 54% Yes, the rural areas and the west had no machines and got 58% No votes and won due to higher turnout. We will all have machines for the next vote- it is not over yet for the EU treaty in ireland.
qbeac (April 29, 2008 at 3:30 am)
We are talking C-O-R-R-U-P-T-I-O-N with capital letters.

Elections are being rigged by a corrupt elite. It has happened already and it will happen again and again.

If society doesn't wake up NOW and puts an end to this corruption, BAD NEWS!!!

Btw, 911 = INSIDE JOB. Google it!
user134342 (January 12, 2008 at 4:52 am)
I'm a programmer, and this is all easily doable.
christopherKBL (January 9, 2008 at 12:22 pm)
scary
NoahHoe (November 30, 2007 at 11:06 pm)
the elitists would rather rig the election against Ron Paul, whether then murder him. that would look a little suspicious.
Tangento (August 15, 2007 at 10:32 pm)
Alternate method: Google this phrase

"If You Want To Win An Election, Just Control The Voting Machines"
Tangento (August 15, 2007 at 10:28 pm)
Here's the big picture, the grand question: WHY THE FUCK ARE CORPORATIONS INVOLVED IN *OUR* (as in 'We the People') VOTING PROCESS? Why is the vote privatized at all? The most sacred element of our democracy, and we allowed it to be handed it over to for-profit entities -- not to mention the fact that these entities have plenty of motivation to commit election fraud.
Tangento (August 15, 2007 at 10:28 pm)
Have a look at this article by Thom Hartmann: commondreamsDOTorgSLASHviews03SLASH0131-01DOThtm

We all must DEMAND CHANGE from our representatives!
luisdanielmesa (August 1, 2007 at 7:23 pm)
I'm a programmer, not highly advanced, and i can make that software. Planting the virus is just matter of befriending the responsible. The virus would remove itself AFTER the voting process ends, why would it remove itself before?. Are you mentally impaired? I know how computers work and i believe this.