Computer scientists take over electronic voting machine with new programming technique

[Are_grits_groceries]

Computer scientists demonstrated that criminals could hack an electronic voting machine and steal votes using a malicious programming approach that had not been invented when the voting machine was designed. The team of scientists from University of California, San Diego, the University of Michigan, and Princeton University employed “return-oriented programming” to force a Sequoia AVC Advantage electronic voting machine to turn against itself and steal votes.
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Computer scientists led by Hovav Shacham, a UC San Diego professor, hacked an electronic voting machine and stole votes using a malicious programming approach that had not been invented when the voting machine was designed. The computer scientists employed "return-oriented programming" to force a Sequoia AVC Advantage electronic voting machine to turn against itself and steal votes. Credit: UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering

The new study demonstrates that return-oriented programming can be used to execute vote-stealing computations by taking control of a voting machine designed to prevent code injection. Shacham and UC San Diego computer science Ph.D. student Stephen Checkoway collaborated with researchers from Princeton University and the University of Michigan on this project.
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The computer scientists had no access to the machine’s source code—or any other proprietary information—when designing the demonstration attack. By using just the information that would be available to anyone who bought or stole a voting machine, the researchers addressed a common criticism made against voting security researchers: that they enjoy unrealistic access to the systems they study.

“Based on our understanding of security and computer technology, it looks like paper-based elections are the way to go. Probably the best approach would involve fast optical scanners reading paper ballots. These kinds of paper-based systems are amenable to statistical audits, which is something the election security research community is shifting to,” said Shacham.

http://www.physorg.com/news169133727.html

One more reason to distrust electronic voting machines. The hackers are now ahead of the design.

[hobbit709]

1. If it can be programmed, it can be reprogrammed

And any good programmer can write a delete and erase command into the program.

[Wednesdays]

2. K&R

:kick: