How to hack a Diebold voting machine [image]

Flickr ^

[LibWhacker]

Found this posted on a leftwing website. Don't know what the hack is supposed to accomplish exactly (anyone know?), but this will really tick you off.

[Spktyr]

IIRC, that hack dumps a copy of the entire unit’s memory to the USB drive.

[CarrotAndStick]

That will do next to nothing. It isn’t this simple to hack a machine like that.

Oh yea, he sticks a USB key onto that board. Then what?

It’s just a stupid cartoon by a wannabe-idiot.

[CarrotAndStick]

How will it do that? What is doing the “handshake” between the board and the USB key to allow such a transfer?

You can stick a USB key into a USB port, but unless the key is programmed in a specific way (the hard part), it won’t do anything.

[Spktyr]

Actually, no.

The Diebold machine is (as I recall) actually a fully functional computer. As long as the USB drive is formatted in a way that a Windows box can read it, slapping the switch over and inserting the key causes it to copy its log file over to the drive. It’s some sort of diagnostic, I think. Or that was the original purpose.

FYI, all the Diebold voting machines run Windows CE.

[LibWhacker]

I was thinking that perhaps that is what throwing the switch does; i.e., tells the machine to automatically dump and erase, or maybe even download data from the USB drive?

[Redcloak]

According to this site (http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/how-to-steal-an-election-with-a-diebold-machine-200693.php), this “hack” will allow a user to load their own software into the machine. My guess is that the switch tells the MB to load software from whatever’s in the USB port.

[dayglored]

> According to this site (http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/how-to-steal-an-election-with-a-diebold-machine-200693.php), this “hack” will allow a user to load their own software into the machine. My guess is that the switch tells the MB to load software from whatever’s in the USB port.

Correct.

This was demonstrated a long time ago (at least a year) as a way to install replacement system and/or application software into the voting machine. It's essentially a functional takeover of the box, as far as I can tell.

Obviously, a Flash drive with pictures of your Aunt Susie at Niagara Falls is not going to do the trick -- you have to put a reasonable image of the desired (hacked) system software on the Flash drive, meaning you have to be a pretty high-level hacker to start with.

[Lost Dutchman]

and of course, there is no way known to man to have tamper seals that would show something like this happening.

[dayglored]

You stick the Flash drive in place and reboot the box. It installs whatever software is on the Flash drive. Bingo. Pwned.

[Spktyr]

OK, that’s different than what I remember from a year or so ago. That’s actually worse than that exploit.

Ooops.

[Lancey Howard]

Found this posted on a leftwing website.

Well, that's not surprising. When it comes to cheating, the rats know everything.

[chuckles]

All you have to do is reload the program with a change to make every vote a D vote no matter what vote is cast. There are other possibles like make every 2 out of 3 R votes a D vote to relieve suspicions.

[Lancey Howard]

Interesting that the rats are on top of this technology. I’m guessing they used this method to try to steal Ohio back in ‘04. That would certainly explain their loud consternation and whining when they lost Ohio.

[D-fendr]

FYI, all the Diebold voting machines run Windows CE.

Oh, great.

[ARE SOLE]

Recent elections seem to be so close with sometimes razor thin margins. I always wondered if this was because the RATS were cheating to get things so even plus one for them.

Regards

[wafflehouse]

i thought there would be a

[Ctrl] [Alt] [Del]

in there somewhere

[Does so]

"...unless the key is programmed in a specific way (the hard part), it won’t do anything..."

Would the Dims be able to manage sophisticated programming? The Chinese can.

[Thermalseeker]

When it comes to cheating, the rats know everything.

And the Clinton machine is the head cheese when it comes to cheating 'Rats. One need only look as far as New Hampshire a couple of days ago.....somebody should have polled the car tags to see where they were from at every 'Rat polling location. If I were Osama Obama I'd be screaming bloody murder right about now.....

[metesky]

Try walking behind a machine with a screwdriver in your hand at my polling place and the charming, kindly little blue-haired ladies that run the show would beat you to death with their canes in a heartbeat.