E-Voting Machine Easily Reprogrammed To Play Pac-Man

from the wokka-the-vote dept

Thu, Aug 19th 2010 1:45pm — Mike Masnick

Tim Lee points us to Alex Halderman and Ariel Feldman's latest demonstration of the hackability of e-voting machines: they reprogrammed a Sequoia machine that was used in the 2008 elections to play Pac-Man:

The really important point is that they did this in three afternoons (and remember, these machines are often left totally unguarded, in the open at polling places for days before elections) without breaking any of the "tamper-resistant" seals that are supposed to alert anyone to any foul play. As Halderman noted:

We could have reprogrammed it to steal votes, but that's been done before, and Pac-Man is more fun!

So now my only question is whether or not they get a cease and desist from NAMCO.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: e-voting, pac-man, security
Companies: sequoia

31 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2010 @ 1:51pm

Yet another reason it should be open source.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2010 @ 2:27pm
  
  Re:
  They probably MADE it open source.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Jose_X, 19 Aug 2010 @ 3:43pm
    
    Re: Re:
    If so, then it's only a matter of time before proper peer review kicks in to close the security holes.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - TtfnJohn (profile), 19 Aug 2010 @ 6:37pm
    
    Re: Re:
    There'd be no need or requirement for "cease and desist orders" of it was open source.
    
    Anyway, it would have been something on the order of a copy of Myst if it had been open source programmers working on open source software. Why waste your time on PacMan?
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
:Lobo Santo (profile), 19 Aug 2010 @ 2:02pm

Hmmm...
Which is more of a waste of time?
A) Playing Pacman at a voting booth.
B) Voting.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 19 Aug 2010 @ 7:58pm
  
  Re: Hmmm...
  Depends on whether your voting system gives equal value to all votes (proportional representation) or gives disproportionate value to votes in constituencies where the winning candidates have the smallest majorities (first-past-the-post).
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2010 @ 2:07pm

Namco C&D
Funny, that was my first thought when I read the story.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Chuck Norris' Enemy (deceased) (profile), 19 Aug 2010 @ 2:21pm

Cast
I vote for Inky!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Gareth, 19 Aug 2010 @ 2:35pm

Pac-Man is one thing
But the true test of any machine is whether or not it can run DOOM...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Dark Helmet (profile), 19 Aug 2010 @ 2:47pm
  
  Re: Pac-Man is one thing
  All American voting machines end in doom....
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Bruce, 19 Aug 2010 @ 4:01pm
  
  Re: Pac-Man is one thing
  That's an example of New School thinking, I prefer Old School thinking:
  
  Letts' Law: All programs evolve until they can send email.
  
  Now, GET OFF MY LAWN! :)
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2010 @ 2:58pm

In celebration of the 30th anniversary of the iconic arcade game, we reprogrammed the AVC Edge to run Pac-Man. It uses MAME to emulate the original hardware. (We own the electronics from a real Pac-Man machine.)

Oh thank goodness, I would hate to think that a university is demonstrating the fraudulent brokenness of our election systems by using a pirated rom. My faith in the rightness of the universe is restored.

This depresses me. These guys are doing work that is crucial to the integrity of our democracy, and they feel the need to profess to being on the up and up with the IP gulag. It's a small and petty thing, but it just broke my mind today.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2010 @ 3:10pm

But does it run Linux?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- J. Alex Halderman, 19 Aug 2010 @ 3:45pm
  
  Re:
  Yes, actually.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Jay (profile), 19 Aug 2010 @ 7:49pm
    
    Re: Re:
    That machine is made of win.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2010 @ 3:20pm

E-voting security system: The Philips Head screwdriver
"The software can be replaced without breaking any of these seals, simply by removing screws and opening the case."

Really? Can't we get someone with more than a 1st graders understanding of how to secure something to work on these things. I don't know whether to laugh or cry at how ridiculous this seems.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2010 @ 3:44pm
  
  Re: E-voting security system: The Philips Head screwdriver
  I had the same thought. Two more stickers and this baby is secure!
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Jose_X, 19 Aug 2010 @ 4:00pm
  
  Re: E-voting security system: The Philips Head screwdriver
  Pass the current article link to more people, so you will have company in your moment of need.
  
  It is amazing how closed government is (or how badly information is disseminated) that they can pull this off.
  
  Humans have a tendency to trust and as well to avoid digging into things very much at all when they feel they simply won't understand something well enough.
  
  Humans also have an inertia problem (sometimes manifested as wishful thinking) and a problem of "if I don't feel the sting immediately, I have not been hurt that much by it".
  
  I am going to consider writing some local relevant public official about this and asking what public steps they are taking with our current voting system to remove liability from their hands and place it into the public's hands. I suspect though that they will prefer that something be exploited silently by a few than for the house to come down ahead of elections as the product inevitably fails before public scrutiny.
  
  It's unfortunate that Florida and other states got such abuse for the "hanging chad" problem. This opened the door in many places to silent control of the majority vote. Florida now uses scanning machines, but these also require software. A practical receipt system (and/or other workable and statistically legitimate checks and balances protocol) needs to be implemented in **all** cases.
  
  [I am part of the dismal state of affairs as notice I accurate simply stated "I am going to consider". Sorry... and please pass the hanky.]
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2010 @ 6:49pm
    
    Re: Re: E-voting security system: The Philips Head screwdriver
    "but these also require software."
    
    Maybe a hardware based solution, where the instructions are hard coded and so can't be changed. Or you know what. A software based solution where the hard drive has a physical mechanism of making it read only. You know, like how SD and 3 1/2 floppy drives have that tab that you can flip and it makes it physically read only. I wish hard drives and flash drives had something similar, but I think some patent exists on the idea and hence it's not implemented. But of course you need some read/write medium to store the votes onto.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
    - Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2010 @ 6:50pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: E-voting security system: The Philips Head screwdriver
      (so you have two separate mediums. One that is physically read only via some physical obstruction that prevents writing to the software, and another that is read/write that the votes are stored on but no software is stored on).
      [ link to this | view in chronology ]
    - Michael, 20 Aug 2010 @ 4:45am
      
      Re: Re: Re: E-voting security system: The Philips Head screwdriver
      Remember the 5 1/4 floppy disk? It had a read-only mechanism as well. If course, it was easily added or defeated using a hole punch or a piece of tape, but it was there!
      
      All of these methods are pretty easily defeated, so I do not think they would be more than security theater. Even a ROM chip can be flashed, and someone will find a way to do it inside the voting machine.
      
      What still amazes me is that people can gain access into the voting machines themselves. We can't put the CPU somewhere that a security guard can watch it and a cable to the touch-screen for the users in the booth? Can the CPU be in a safe of some sort? A screw protecting it? Really?
      [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Michael, 20 Aug 2010 @ 4:38am
  
  Re: E-voting security system: The Philips Head screwdriver
  Does this make producing screwdrivers a DMCA violation? Wasn't this part of their security and the screwdriver is circumventing it? I think MAC tools is the problem! Those pirates!
  
  Sorry, was that over the edge?
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2010 @ 3:45pm

How much time did they have? Is that a silk screen at the top of the machine just above the screeen?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2010 @ 4:55pm
  
  Re:
  I believe that is from a [Dr. Evil]"laser"[/Dr. Evil] printer or maybe even an inkjet.
  http://www.cse.umich.edu/~jhalderm/pacman/avc-screen.jpg
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
ajgajg1134 (profile), 19 Aug 2010 @ 5:00pm

More young kids would come to vote if all the voting machines were like this. :D
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2010 @ 6:52pm
  
  Re:
  Well, they would probably have to put a game more interesting than PacMan. What games do the kids play these days?
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2010 @ 6:53pm
  
  Re:
  So basically our voting machines have turned into a free arcade. Wonderful.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2010 @ 6:54pm
    
    Re: Re:
    But, then again, I suppose free entertainment can be considered a public good.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it

Hippy Hop, 19 Aug 2010 @ 7:39pm

If that is not hard evidence on rigged election results, I don’t know what kind of evidence they want. And to think the company ho made these machines had defended the machines to the hilt, now what can they say? Better be back to manual elections.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- monkyyy, 20 Aug 2010 @ 5:48pm
  
  Re:
  but i dont trust people either
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
garmin, 21 Aug 2010 @ 7:13am

vote miss pacman
get her in the white house :D
[ link to this | view in chronology ]