WORST EVER SECURITY FLAW FOUND IN DIEBOLD TS VOTING MACHINE

[Guest guest]

( Diana Irey, a Washington County Commissioner who is running against

Murtha, voted for Diebold!)

 

 

OPEN VOTING FOUNDATION

9560 Windrose Lane

Granite Bay, CA 95746

Phone (916) 295-0415

alan

 

PRESS RELEASE -- JULY 31, 2006

 

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WORST EVER SECURITY FLAW FOUND IN DIEBOLD TS VOTING MACHINE

Contact: Alan Dechert

Reference: _PICTURES_ (http://www.openvotingfoundation.org/ts/)

(Click on thumbnail. Click again on lower half of picture for high

resolution)

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA -- “This may be the worst security flaw we have seen

in touch screen voting machines,†says Open Voting Foundation president, Alan

Dechert. Upon examining the inner workings of one of the most popular

paperless touch screen voting machines used in public elections in the United

States, it has been determined that with the flip of a single switch inside,

the

machine can behave in a completely different manner compared to the tested and

certified version.

“Diebold has made the testing and certification process practically

irrelevant,†according to Dechert. “If you have access to these machines and

you

want to rig an election, anything is possible with the Diebold TS -- and it

could be done without leaving a trace. All you need is a screwdriver.†This

model

does not produce a voter verified paper trail so there is no way to check if

the voter’s choices are accurately reflected in the tabulation.

Open Voting Foundation is releasing 22 high-resolution close up pictures of

the system. _This picture,_ (http://www.openvotingfoundation.org/5-bt-cfg.jpg)

in particular, shows a “BOOT AREA CONFIGURATION†chart painted on the

system board.

The most serious issue is the ability to choose between " EPROM " and " FLASH "

boot configurations. Both of these memory sources are present. All of the

switches in question (JP2, JP3, JP8, SW2 and SW4) are physically present on the

board. It is clear that this system can ship with live boot profiles in two

locations, and switching back and forth could change literally everything

regarding how the machine works and counts votes. This could be done before or

after the so-called " Logic And Accuracy Tests " .

A third possible profile could be field-added in minutes and selected in the

" external flash " memory location, the interface for which is present on the

motherboard.

This is not a minor variation from the previously documented attack point on

the newer Diebold TSx. To its credit, the TSx can only contain one boot

profile at a time. Diebold has ensured that it is extremely difficult to

confirm

what code is in a TSx (or TS) at any one time but it is at least theoretically

possible to do so. But in the TS, a completely legal and certified set of

files can be instantly overridden and illegal uncertified code be made dominant

in the system, and then this situation can be reversed leaving the legal

code dominant again in a matter of minutes.

“These findings underscore the need for open testing and certification. There

is no way such a security vulnerability should be allowed. These systems

should be recalledâ€

OPEN VOTING FOUNDATION is a nonprofit non stock California corporation

dedicated to demonstrating the need for and benefits of voting technology that

can

be publicly scrutinized.

###

Mission

The primary objectives and purposes of this organization shall be: to

educate the public and governmental of)ficials and entities concerning

elections

systems based upon open source software, and further to promote the adoption of

open source voting and elections solutions worldwide.

 

We believe that vote tabulation must be publicly observable, and that

proprietary hidden software code makes public observation of tabulation

impossible

 

Open Voting Foundation is a nonprofit nonstock corporation applying for tax

exempt status as a 501©(3) organization.

 

 

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