Reply #68: IP

[skids]

For any definite answer to #1, you need to know more about the "digiboard". Does the digiboard use IP? Does it use DHCP? Neither of these questions have been answered, so we don't know if the DHCP error had anything at all to do with tabulators -- it could be from another network connection entirely. Further, I can't tell you anything about the order in which a DHCP server would assign addresses. Every implementation is different. You would need to see for yourself -- in this case, assuming it behaves like any DHCP server started on an NT box with a default configuration might be safest, but would still be just an assumption.

So if the tabulators use IP on their modem connections, then they may have something to do with the DHCP error. If they do not, they definitely do not. Further speculation without answering this question is not time effective.

Now for question #3, modem-to-modem connections can run IP, as stated above. They can also run a number of different protocols like IPX, IPV6, DECNET, etc etc etc. If they do run IP (or another protocol), and the accumulator has not been configured explicitly to deny access to SAPs (service access points) that the tabulator has no business accessing, then any computer dialing in and pretending to be a tabulator can try to hack into those SAPs. If IP is the protocol, another word for the SAPs is "ports". So if they fire up an IP stack to communicate over the modem, odds are they are opening the accumulator up to a number of attacks by doing so. Also, establishing the IP connection might happen before any check as to whether the phone call is from a valid tabulator.

As far as the "recognizing" the memory card, what if a fake tabulator dialed in before the original tabulator, and then the original tabulator's phoneline was jammed and kept from contacting the accumulator? Do the tabulators only call in once, or do they call in many times with updated data? What if, after the tabulator was done, someone called in and updated the data with more votes? What if a fake tabulator dialed in, hacked the system, and forced any new votes from a given tabulator to be silently ignored? This is not as secure a system as the manual probably makes it out to be, as too much reliance is put on the assumption that noone who would hack the election knows the ID numbers on the memory cards.

The big thing to look at here is the Soyo MAC address. I am to understand that there are other logfiles with other MAC addresses? If so, I have posted what needs to be done with these addresses to get a clearer picture of what is going on (in another thread here at DU, and on BBV dcforums)