OVSTA
County of Los Angeles Vsap Tally 1.0 Consultant Security and Telecommunications Report
VSAP Tally Version 1.0
Read the report at Los Angeles County VSAP ↗
County of Los Angeles VSAP Tally 1.0
Central Tabulation System
Security and Telecommunications Test Report
for California
LAC-306-STR-01
Prepared for:
Vendor Name Los Angeles County
Vendor System VSAP
Prepared by:
4720 Independence St.
Wheat Ridge, CO 80033
303-422-1566
www.SLICompliance.com
Accredited by the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) for Selected Voting System Test
Methods or Services
Los Angeles County
VSAP Tally 1.0
California Certification
Security & Telecomm Test Report
v1.1
Copyright 2018 by SLI ComplianceSM, a Division of Gaming Laboratories International, LLC
Revision History
Date Release Author Revision Summary
July 12th2018 v1.0 M. Santos, J. Peterson Initial Release
July 16th, 2018 V1.1 M. Santos, J. Peterson Updates per CASOS
Disclaimer
The information reported herein must not be used by the client to claim product
certification, approval, or endorsement by NVLAP, NIST, or any agency of the Federal
Government.
Trademarks
• SLI is a registered trademark of SLI Compliance.
• All products and company names are used for identification purposes only and may
be trademarks of their respective owners.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................... 4
REVIEW RESULTS....................................................................................................................................... 4
PHASE I – DOCUMENTATION REVIEW ............................................................................................................ 4
PHASE II – FUNCTIONAL SECURITY TESTING ................................................................................................ 12
PHASE III – TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND DATA TRANSMISSION TESTING ....................................................... 25
PHASE IV – ONSITE TESTING ...................................................................................................................... 27
SECURITY FINDINGS ................................................................................................................................ 34
DOCUMENTATION REVIEW DISCREPANCIES ................................................................................................. 34
FUNCTIONAL REVIEW DISCREPANCIES ........................................................................................................ 35
TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND DATA REVIEW DISCREPANCIES ......................................................................... 36
ONSITE REVIEW DISCREPANCIES ................................................................................................................ 37
VULNERABILITIES .................................................................................................................................... 37
DOCUMENTATION REVIEW VULNERABILITIES ................................................................................................ 38
FUNCTIONAL REVIEW VULNERABILITIES ....................................................................................................... 38
TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND DATA REVIEW VULNERABILITIES ....................................................................... 39
ONSITE REVIEW VULNERABILITIES .............................................................................................................. 40
CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................................ 41
FINAL REPORT .......................................................................................................................................... 44
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Introduction
This Test Report outlines the security testing approach SLI Compliance (SLI)
followed when performing Security and Telecommunications Testing on the County
of Los Angeles VSAP Tally 1.0 (VSAP Tally 1.0) system against the California
Voting System Standards (CVSS).
Security and Telecommunications testing examined:
• Top-level system design and architecture
• System documentation and procedures
• Testing of relevant software and operating system configuration, for
pertinent vulnerabilities
• Testing of hardware, including examination of unused hardware ports, and
security measures applied to those ports
• Testing of system communications, including encryption of data, as well as
protocols and procedures for access authorization
Testing was implemented without any prior knowledge of the source code.
The testing was divided into four phases.
• Phase I included review of all pertinent documents for appropriate
processes and procedures for implementing a secure system. This will
include review of the system design and architecture.
• Phase II included testing of relevant software, operating systems and
hardware configurations.
• Phase III included testing of all telecommunications aspects of the system.
• Phase IV included an onsite inspection of the VSAP Tally environment.
Review Results
Phase I – Documentation Review
The documentation review was conducted to analyze the LA County VSAP Tally
1.0 system for findings against the applicable California Voting System Standards
(CVSS):
• Top-level system design and architecture
• Design, construction, and maintenance requirements
• Access control identification
• Central count location security
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• Software and firmware installation
• Protection against malicious software
• Software distribution and setup validation
• Software distribution
• Software reference information
• Software setup validation
• Access control
Design, Construction, and Maintenance Requirements
The LA County VSAP Tally 1.0 system was examined for compliance with the
following CVSS 6.2 requirement:
Design, construction, and maintenance requirements for telecommunications
represent the operational capability of both system hardware and software. These
capabilities shall be considered basic to all data transmissions.
Results
• The expected outcome for this review was that no issue would be found.
• The actual outcome for this review was a determination that the
documentation sufficiently detailed the design, construction, and
maintenance requirements for communications related to the VSAP Tally
1.0 solution. The system currently utilizes an air gapped networking
infrastructure and public telecommunications are not applicable.
Access Control Identification
The LA County VSAP Tally 1.0 system was examined for compliance with the
following CVSS 7.2.2 requirements:
a. The voting system shall identify users and processes to which access is
granted and the specific functions and data to which each entity holds
authorized access.
b. Voting system equipment that implements role-based access control shall
support the recommendations for Core RBAC in the ANSI INCITS 359-2004
American National Standard for Information Technology- Role Based
Access Control document.
c. Voting system equipment shall allow the administrator group or role to
configure the permissions and functionality for each identity, group, or role
to include account and group/role creation, modification, and deletion.
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Results
• The expected outcome for this review was that no issue would be found.
• The actual outcome for this review was a determination that the
documentation contained sufficient information on users, processes, roles,
and specific functions within the documentation. This included VSAP Tally
1.0 application users as well as Backend OS and Scanner access controls.
Central Count Location Security
The LA County VSAP Tally 1.0 system was examined for compliance with the
following CVSS 7.3.2 requirement:
Manufacturers shall develop and document in detail the measures to be taken in a
central counting environment. These measures shall include physical and
procedural controls related to the handling of ballot boxes, preparing of ballots for
counting, counting operations and reporting data.
Results
• The expected outcome for this review was that no issue would be found.
• The actual outcome for this review was a determination that sufficient
documentation was in place detailing the physical, logical, and electronic
Central Count security, including video surveillance, building alarms, badge
access, and dedicated onsite redundant building power.
Software and Firmware Installation
The LA County VSAP Tally 1.0 system was examined for compliance with the
following CVSS 7.4.1 requirements:
The system shall meet the following requirements for installation of software,
including hardware with embedded firmware.
a. Air Gap Architecture
i. Every voting system shall be capable of being deployed in a segregated
dual-installation architecture to protect against propagation of viruses.
The architecture shall allow elections officials to use one or more,
permanent server(s) and set of central-office voting devices, known to be
running unaltered, certified software and firmware to create memory
cards before each election and to use another, physically separate
“sacrificial” server and set of voting devices after the election to tabulate
results and generate reports. The architecture shall allow transfer of the
election definition and tally database from the permanent server(s) to the
sacrificial server using a write-once medium, such as a CD-R. The
voting system architecture shall allow each installation to use its own
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Ethernet network, port server, and central-office vote-recording units,
including any DRE and optical scan units, permitting the two
installations to be segregated and air-gapped to ensure that there are
no cross connections. An air gap is established by keeping two
installations/networks physically separate and seeing that no device
attached to the sacrificial installation/network is connected (directly or
indirectly) to the first network, ensuring that data cannot flow from one
installation/network to the other.
ii. The TDP for the voting system shall provide full procedures and
instructions, to be incorporated into the Official Use Procedures for the
voting system, to implement the segregated dual-installation
architecture.
b. Voting and Tabulating Units
i. If software is resident in the system as firmware, the manufacturer shall
require and state in the system documentation that every device is to be
retested to validate each ROM prior to the start of elections operations.
ii. To prevent alteration of executable code, no software shall be
permanently installed or resident in the voting system unless the system
documentation states that the jurisdiction must provide a secure physical
and procedural environment for the storage, handling, preparation, and
transportation of the system hardware.
iii. The voting system bootstrap, monitor, and device-controller software
may be resident permanently as firmware, provided that this firmware
has been shown to be inaccessible to activation or control by any means
other than by the authorized initiation and execution of the vote counting
program, and its associated exception handlers.
iv. The election-specific programming may be installed and resident as
firmware, provided that such firmware is installed on a component (such
as a computer chip) other than the component on which the operating
system resides.
v. After initiation of Election Day testing, no source code or compilers or
assemblers shall be resident or accessible.
Results
• The expected outcome for this review was that no issue would be found.
• The actual outcome for this review was a determination that, over all, the
documentation covered or referenced part of the CVSS requirements.
However, while air gap technologies and practices are discussed, no
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specific documentation detailing the implementation of these practices was
provided.
a. Air Gap Architecture: the documentation described the basic overall
features and requirements of the Air Gapped network; however, the
documentation does not go into exact specifics of configuration of the
setup and deployment of the air gap. The documentation details
components of the air gap including who performs the administrative
functions and how anti-virus protection is handled. The documentation
includes measures to ensure the air gap is maintained including
disabling of USB ports, covering media slots use of tamper evident
seals, and lock/key combinations.
However the documentation does not provide exact steps for installation
and configuration of the network equipment or the VSAP Tally and
Scanner systems in conjunction with maintaining the air gap.
b. i, ii, iii, iv. None of the software of the VSAP Tally 1.0 system is resident
as firmware, therefore no documentation is needed for these
requirements.
b. v. Confirmed that the build process is documented on a dedicated build
environment and that no source code, compilers, or assemblers are
present in the production systems.
Protection against Malicious Software
The LA County VSAP Tally 1.0 system was examined for compliance with the
following CVSS 7.4.2 requirements:
Voting systems shall deploy commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) protection against
the many forms of threats to which they may be exposed such as file and macro
viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and logic bombs.
Manufacturers shall develop and document the procedures to be followed to
ensure that such protection is maintained in a current status. Virus and malware
protection software and updates shall be installed using transportable portable
media only and shall not be installed by download from the Internet.
Results
• The expected outcome for this review was that no issue would be found.
• The actual outcome for this review was a determination that the VSAP Tally
1.0 system does not actively utilize COTS anti-virus protection on the
systems associated with the solution. This includes machines that are
designated as part of the scanner solution. The documentations states that
all machines/servers be scanned before the election and that after the initial
vulnerability assessment / virus scan, all machines will be isolated on the air
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gapped network. Documentation also states that during the tabulation
process, no anti-virus solution is employed on the closed air gapped
network.
Software Distribution and Setup Validation
The LA County VSAP Tally 1.0 system was examined for compliance with the
following CVSS 7.4.3 requirement:
Subsections 7.4.4, 7.4.5 and 7.4.6 specify requirements for the distribution of
voting system software and the setup validation performed on voting system
equipment. These requirements are applicable to voting systems that have
completed certification testing.
Software Distribution
The LA County VSAP Tally 1.0 system was examined for compliance with the
following CVSS 7.4.4 requirements:
The manufacturer shall document all software including voting system software,
third party software (such as operating systems and drivers) to be installed on the
certified voting system, and installation programs.
a. The documentation shall have a unique identifier (such as a serial
number or part number) for the following set of information:
documentation, software manufacturer name, product name, version, the
certification application number of the voting system, file names and
paths or other location information (such as storage addresses) of the
software.
b. The documentation shall designate all software files as static, semi-
static or dynamic.
Results
• The expected outcome for this review was that no issue would be found.
• The actual outcome for this review was a determination that the
manufacturer’s documentation contains sufficient references for software
utilized in the solution including VSAP Tally 1.0 components, operating
system, and COTS products.
a. The documentation contains sufficient unique identifiers for all requested
information including file names (where applicable); versions of
documentation; and software manufacturer names, versions, and
product names.
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b. The documentation indicates that the VSAP Tally 1.0 software is static;
bindings such as openssl, zbar and opencv are dynamic; and that Linux
production environments, including docker, are a mix of the two (semi-
static). However, it did not include a specific listing of all software files.
Software Reference Information
The LA County VSAP Tally 1.0 system was examined for compliance with the
following CVSS 7.4.5 requirements:
a. The manufacturer shall provide the NSRL, any California certified escrow
facility, pursuant to Title 2, Division 7, Chapter 6 of the California Code of
Regulation, and the Office of the Secretary of State with a copy of the
software installation disk, including the executable binary images of all third
party software. Further, the manufacturer shall deposit the source code,
tools, and documentation, to allow the complete and successful compilation
of a system in its production/operation environment.
i. The manufacturer shall document that the process used to verify the
software distributed on unalterable storage media is the certified
software by using the reference information provided by the NSRL or
other designated repository before installing the software.
c. The manufacturers shall document to whom they provide voting system
software.
Results
• The expected outcome for this review was that no issue would be found.
• The actual outcome for this review was a determination that the instructions
for setting up the build environment and building the deployment package
are sufficient. However, the documentation did not indicate where the
certified copy of the software is obtained (CA SOS or Laboratory that tested
the system). There are instructions detailing how to verify if the software
distributed is the certified version; however, it does not discuss using
unalterable storage media for distribution.
Software Setup Validation
The LA County VSAP Tally 1.0 system was examined for compliance with the
following CVSS 7.4.6 requirements:
g. Setup validation methods shall verify the contents of all system storage
locations (e.g., system registers, variables, files, etc.) containing election
specific information (e.g., ballot style, candidate registers, measure
registers, etc.).
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i. The manufacturer shall document the default values of all system
storage locations that hold election specific information.
Results
• The expected outcome for this review was that no issue would be found.
• The actual outcome for this review was a determination that there are
validation methods documented to verify the VSAP Tally 1.0 trusted build
output as well as a JSON file with a list of every container generated by the
build process and a corresponding hash value. Each of the COTS products
contains a hash of the single file deployment files. The system, however,
does not have a way to provide a verification method of all system storage
locations, only the VSAP Tally 1.0 solution and the COTS products
installers.
Access Control
The LA County VSAP Tally 1.0 system was examined for compliance with the
following CVSS 7.8.1 requirements:
The accredited testing laboratory shall conduct tests of system capabilities and
review the access control policies and procedures submitted by the manufacturer
to identify and verify the access control features implemented as a function of the
system.
Specific activities to be conducted by the State-approved testing agency (S-ATA)
shall include:
a. A review of the manufacturer’s access control policies, procedures and
system capabilities to confirm that all requirements have been addressed
completely.
Results
• The expected outcome for this review was that no issue would be found.
• The actual outcome for this review was a determination that there is
sufficient documentation of access control including: users present, roles of
specific users, and documented functionality for all users of the system(s)
including scanner users.
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Phase II – Functional Security Testing
Phase II testing included:
• Testing of relevant software and operating system configuration, for
pertinent vulnerabilities
• Testing of hardware, including examination of unused hardware ports and
the security measures applied to those ports
During Phase II testing, functional tests were exercised to verify and validate the
following requirements in accordance with the applicable California Voting System
Standards (CVSS):
• In-process audit records
• General access control
• Access control identification
• Access control authentication
• Access control authorization
• Physical security measures
• Central count location security
• Software and firmware installation
• Protection against malicious software
• Software distribution and setup validation
• Software reference information
• Software setup validation
• Telecommunications and data transmission
• Maintaining data integrity
• Access control
• Data interception and disruption
In-process Audit Records
The LA County VSAP Tally 1.0 system was examined for compliance with the
following CVSS 5.4.3 requirement:
a. Machine generated error and exception messages to demonstrate
successful recovery.
iv. Notification of system login or access errors, file access errors, and
physical violations of security as they occur, and a summary record of
these events after processing
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Results
• The expected outcome for this review was that no issue would be found.
• The actual outcome for this review was a determination that the system
generates and contains sufficient auditing capability. This includes VSAP
Tally 1.0 logs, Centos Operating System logs, Windows OS logs, and
Imagetrac logs.
General Access Control
The LA County VSAP Tally 1.0 system was examined for compliance with the
following CVSS 7.2.1 requirements:
a. Voting system equipment shall provide access control mechanisms
designed to permit authorized access to the voting system and to prevent
unauthorized access to the voting system.
i. Access control mechanisms on the Election Management System (EMS)
shall be capable of identifying and authenticating individuals permitted to
perform operations on the EMS.
b. Voting system equipment shall provide controls that permit or deny access
to the device’s software and files.
c. The default access control permissions shall implement the minimum
permissions needed for each role or group identified by a device.
d. The voting device shall prevent a lower-privileged process from modifying a
higher-privileged process.
e. An administrator of voting system equipment shall authorize privileged
operations.
f. Voting system equipment shall prevent modification to or tampering with
software or firmware through any means other than the documented
procedure for software upgrades.
Results
• The expected outcome for this review was that no issue would be found.
• The actual outcome for this review was a determination that the system
sufficiently provides access controls for the VSAP Tally 1.0 solution, as well
as the systems associated with the solution. The system has processes and
procedures in place to prevent modification/tampering with
software/firmware, as well as physical security including an air gapped
network.
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Access Control Identification
The LA County VSAP Tally 1.0 system was examined for compliance with the
following CVSS 7.2.2 requirements:
a. The voting system shall identify users and processes to which access is
granted and the specific functions and data to which each entity holds
authorized access.
b. Voting system equipment that implements role-based access control shall
support the recommendations for Core RBAC in the ANSI INCITS 359-2004
American National Standard for Information Technology- Role Based
Access Control document.
c. Voting system equipment shall allow the administrator group or role to
configure the permissions and functionality for each identity, group, or role
to include account and group/role creation, modification, and deletion.
Results
• The expected outcome for this review was that no issue would be found.
• The actual outcome for this review was a determination that the access
controls are sufficient for all portions of the VSAP Tally 1.0 environment,
including scanner environment.
Access Control Authentication
The LA County VSAP Tally 1.0 system was examined for compliance with the
following CVSS 7.2.3 requirements.
a. Voting system equipment shall authenticate users prior to granting them
access to system functions or data.
b. When private or secret authentication data is stored in voting system
equipment, the data shall be protected to ensure that the confidentiality and
integrity of the data is not violated.
c. Voting system equipment shall allow the administrator group or role to set
and change passwords, pass phrases, and keys.
d. Voting system equipment shall allow privileged groups or roles to be
disabled and allow new individual privileged groups or roles to be created.
e. Voting system equipment shall lock out groups, roles, or individuals after a
specified number of consecutive failed authentication attempts within a
predefined time period.
f. Voting systems shall allow the administrator group or role to configure the
account lock out policy, including the time period within which failed
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attempts must occur, the number of consecutive failed access attempts
allowed before lock out, and the length of time the account is locked out.
g. If the voting system uses a user name and password authentication method,
the voting system shall allow the administrator to enforce password
strength, histories, and expiration.
h. The voting system shall allow the administrator group or role to specify
password strength for all accounts, including minimum password length, use
of capitalized letters, use of numeric characters, and use of non-alphanumeric
characters.
i. The voting system shall enforce password histories, and allow the
administrator to configure the history length.
j. Voting system equipment shall ensure that the username is not used in the
password.
k. Voting systems shall provide a means to automatically expire passwords in
accordance with the voting jurisdiction’s policies.
Results
• The expected outcome for this review was that no issue would be found.
• The actual outcome for this review was a determination that all username
password functionality is maintained by an administrative source. Complex
passwords, lockout history, complexity requirements, and expiration of
passwords can all be enforced at the operating system level which
sufficiently meets the requirements.
Access Control Authorization
The LA County VSAP Tally 1.0 system was examined for compliance with the
following CVSS 7.2.4 requirements:
a. Voting systems shall ensure that only authorized roles, groups, or
individuals have access to election data.
b. Voting systems shall explicitly authorize subject’s access based on access
control lists or policies.
c. Voting systems shall explicitly deny subject’s access based on access
control lists or policies.
Results
• The expected outcome for this review was that no issue would be found.
• The actual outcome for this review was a determination that the system
sufficiently ensures that only authorized users/groups/roles have access to
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the systems and election data, from the scanning environment through the
VSAP Tally 1.0 user interface.
Physical Security Measures
The LA County VSAP Tally 1.0 system was examined for compliance with the
following CVSS 7.3 requirements:
a. Any unauthorized physical access shall leave physical evidence that an
unauthorized event has taken place.
b. Voting systems shall only have physical ports and access points that are
essential to voting operations and to voting system testing and auditing.
c. An event log entry that identifies the name of the affected device shall be
generated if a component connected to a piece of voting system equipment
is disconnected while polls are open.
d. Ports disabled while polls are open shall only be re-enabled by authorized
administrators.
e. Access points, such as covers and panels, shall be secured by locks or
tamper evident seals or tamper resistant countermeasures shall be
implemented so that system owners can monitor access to voting system
components through these points.
f. Ballot boxes shall be designed such that any unauthorized physical access
results in physical evidence that an unauthorized event has taken place.
Results
• The expected outcome for this review was that no issue would be found.
• The actual outcome for this review was a determination that the system
sufficiently meets the requirement for physical security.
Central Count Location Security
The LA County VSAP Tally 1.0 system was examined for compliance with the
following CVSS 7.3.2 requirement:
Manufacturers shall develop and document in detail the measures to be taken in a
central counting environment. These measures shall include physical and
procedural controls related to the handling of ballot boxes, preparing of ballots for
counting, counting operations and reporting data.
Results
• The expected outcome for this review was that no issue would be found.
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• The actual outcome for this review was a determination that the solution
fully documents and implements processes and procedures for securing the
central count location. These include physical security measures, procedural
controls for maintaining the Air Gap network, protection and handling of
ballots, and reporting of data.
Software and Firmware Installation
The LA County VSAP Tally 1.0 system was examined for compliance with the
following CVSS 7.4.1 requirements:
The system shall meet the following requirements for installation of software,
including hardware with embedded firmware.
b. Voting and Tabulating Units
ii. To prevent alteration of executable code, no software shall be
permanently installed or resident in the voting system unless the system
documentation states that the jurisdiction must provide a secure physical
and procedural environment for the storage, handling, preparation, and
transportation of the system hardware.
iii. The voting system bootstrap, monitor, and device-controller software
may be resident permanently as firmware, provided that this firmware
has been shown to be inaccessible to activation or control by any means
other than by the authorized initiation and execution of the vote counting
program, and its associated exception handlers.
iv. The election-specific programming may be installed and resident as
firmware, provided that such firmware is installed on a component (such
as a computer chip) other than the component on which the operating
system resides.
v. After initiation of Election Day testing, no source code or compilers or
assemblers shall be resident or accessible.
Results
• The expected outcome for this review was that no issue would be found.
• The actual outcome for this review was a determination that the VSAP Tally
1.0 solution sufficiently meets the requirements for software and firmware
installation. Further testing indicates that the solution is not resident as
firmware and that there are processes in place to verify installation media,
as well as verification procedures for each of the Docker instances. The
systems are protected by extended physical and procedural security
measures.
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Protection against Malicious Software
The LA County VSAP Tally 1.0 system was examined for compliance with the
following CVSS 7.4.2 requirements:
Voting systems shall deploy commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) protection against
the many forms of threats to which they may be exposed such as file and macro
viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and logic bombs.
Manufacturers shall develop and document the procedures to be followed to
ensure that such protection is maintained in a current status. Virus and malware
protection software and updates shall be installed using transportable portable
media only and shall not be installed by download from the Internet.
Results
• The expected outcome for this review was that no issue would be found.
• The actual outcome for this review was a determination that during
operations the systems within the scanner environment as well as the
systems within the VSAP Tally 1.0 environment do not actively use COTS
anti-virus protection. The system instead utilizes initial malware/anti-virus
and vulnerability scanning prior to the systems being introduced to the air
gapped network. These are mitigation steps that are being relied upon
instead of active malicious software protection.
Software Distribution and Setup Validation
The LA County VSAP Tally 1.0 system was examined for compliance with the
following CVSS 7.4.3 requirement:
Subsections 7.4.4, 7.4.5 and 7.4.6 specify requirements for the distribution of
voting system software and the setup validation performed on voting system
equipment. These requirements are applicable to voting systems that have
completed certification testing.
Software Setup Validation
The LA County VSAP Tally 1.0 system was examined for compliance with the
following CVSS 7.4.6 requirements:
a. Setup validation methods shall verify that only authorized software is
present on the voting equipment. Authorized software is COTS software
components needed to run the voting system and voting software
components identified by the manufacturer as authorized.
b. The manufacturer shall provide a method to comprehensively list all
software files that are installed on voting systems.
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i. This method shall list version names and numbers for all application
software on the voting system.
ii. This method should list of the date of installation for all application
software on the voting system.
c. Setup validation methods shall include a software verification method that
ensures that the voting system software has not been modified illegitimately.
i. The voting systems shall include any supporting software and hardware
necessary to conduct the software verification method.
ii. The manufacturer shall document the process used to conduct the
software verification method.
iii. The software verification method shall not modify the voting system
software on the voting system.
d. Voting systems shall include a software verification method that either
verifies software prior to installation or a method that verifies software using
an external interface. Voting systems may include both software verification
methods. Voting systems may provide ancillary setup validation methods,
including methods for verifying or identifying installed software, other than
those described in this section. There are no specific requirements for
ancillary setup validation methods. However, any method intended to serve
as the voting system software verification method must meet the
requirements outlined in this section.
e. Voting systems which implement a software verification method that verifies
software prior to installation shall meet the following requirements.
i. The voting system shall contain no more than one method for installing,
updating, or removing software on a system.
o Voting system equipment shall prevent processes from installing
software except for the one specific software installation process
identified by the manufacturer.
o The voting system manufacturer shall document the procedures for
installing, updating, and removing voting system software,
configuration files, and data files.
o Voting system equipment shall prevent processes from installing,
updating or removing software while the polls are open.
o Voting system equipment shall prevent the execution of software not
installed using the specified software installation process.
ii. The voting system shall only allow authenticated administrators to install
software on voting equipment. The voting system shall present the
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administrator with a description of the software change being performed,
including:
o A list of all applications and/or file names being updated.
o The type of action performed on each application and/or file (e.g.,
new application/file, deletion or overwriting of existing file)
iii. Voting system equipment shall store the current version identification of
all software installed on the voting system equipment.
o The current version identification shall be included as part of reports
created by the voting system equipment.
o The current version identification shall be displayed as part of the
voting system equipment start up process.
iv. The process for installing, updating and removing software shall make
software changes based on information contained in software update
packages. Software update packages shall minimally contain the
following information:
o A unique identifier for the software update package.
o Names of the applications or files modified during the update
process.
o Version numbers of the applications or files modified during the
update process.
o Any software prerequisites or dependencies for the software involved
in the update.
o A description of the type of action performed on each application
and/or file (e.g., new application/file, deletion or overwriting of existing
file).
o The binary data of any new or updated files involved in the update
process.
v. The software update package shall be formatted in a non-restrictive,
publicly-available format. Manufacturers shall provide a specification
describing how they have implemented the format with respect to the
manufacturer’s specific voting devices and data, including such items as
descriptions of elements, attributes, constraints, extensions, syntax and
semantics of the format, and definitions for data fields and schemas.
vi. Software update packages shall be digitally signed by using a NIST
approved algorithm with a security strength of at least 112 bits.
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vii. The software installation process shall verify digital signatures, software
version identification, software prerequisites and dependencies, and
manufacturer specific authorization information associated with the
software before the software is installed. The software installation
process shall not install software with invalid digital signatures, version
numbers, or manufacturer specific authorization information, and shall
not install software on systems that do not meet the update requisites.
viii. The voting system shall have the capability to prevent the installation of
previous versions of applications or files.
ix. The software installation process shall result in information being stored
in the voting system equipment’s log such that altering or deleting log
entries or the log will be detected.
x. The minimum information to be included in the voting system equipment
log shall be:
o Success or failure of the software installation process;
o Cause of a failed software installation (such as invalid version
identification, digital signature, etc.);
o Application or file name(s), and version number(s);
o A description of the type of action performed on each application
and/or file (e.g., new application/file, deletion or overwriting of existing
file);
o A cryptographic hash of the software update package using FIPS
1402 level 1 or higher validated cryptographic module.
f. If software is verified after being installed on the voting system equipment,
the voting system equipment shall provide an external interface to the
location of the voting system software for software verification purposes.
i. The external interface:
o Shall be protected using tamper evident techniques,
o Shall have a physical indicator showing when the interface is
enabled and disabled
o Shall be disabled during voting
o Should provide a direct read-only access to the location of the voting
system software without the use of installed software ii. The
verification process should be able to be performed using COTS
software and hardware available from sources other than the voting
system manufacturer.
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o If the process uses hashes or digital signatures, then the verification
software shall use a FIPS 140-2 level 1 or higher validated
cryptographic module.
o The verification process shall either (a) use reference information on
unalterable storage media received from the repository or (b) verify
the digital signature of the reference information on any other media.
g. Setup validation methods shall verify the contents of all system storage
locations (e.g., system registers, variables, files, etc.) containing election
specific information (e.g., ballot style, candidate registers, measure
registers, etc.).
i. The manufacturer should provide a method to query the voting system to
determine the value contained in all system storage locations containing
election specific information.
Results
• The expected outcome for this review was that no issue would be found.
• The actual outcome for this review was a determination that there are
validation methods to verify the VSAP Tally 1.0 trusted build output as well
as a JSON file created with a list of every container generated by the build
process and a corresponding hash value. Each of the COTS products
contains a hash of the single COTS file installation file(s). This indicates that
the software validation is done prior to the installation of the system.
o The system has no protections to prevent processes from installing
software except for manual processes and procedures and physical
security and access controls to prevent unauthorized installation.
o The VSAP Tally system utilizes processes and procedures to ensure that
previous versions of the system are not installed.
o The software update package is not digitally signed.
o The Solution doesn’t currently utilize an automated process to prevent
unwanted installations
o The system doesn’t have a way to provide a verification method of all
system storage locations, only the VSAP Tally 1.0 solution, and the
COTS products installers.
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Maintaining Data Integrity
The LA County VSAP Tally 1.0 system was examined for compliance with the
following CVSS 7.6.1 requirements:
Voting systems that use telecommunications to communicate between system
components and locations are subject to the same security requirements governing
access to any other system hardware, software, and data function.
a. Voting systems that use electrical or optical transmission of data shall
ensure the receipt of valid vote records is verified at the receiving station.
This should include standard transmission error detection and correction
methods such as checksums or message digest hashes. Verification of
correct transmission shall occur at the voting system application level and
ensure that the correct data is recorded on all relevant components
consolidated within the polling place prior to the voter completing casting of
his or her ballot.
i. Cryptography used to verify the receipt of vote records shall use NIST
approved algorithms with security strength of at least 112 bits. Message
Authentication Code (MAC) keys shall have a security strength of at
least 112 bits.
Results
• The expected outcome for this review was that no issue would be found.
• The actual outcome for this review was a determination that portions of this
requirement are not applicable. The system scans already marked ballots
which are then processed by the VSAP Tally 1.0 system. No checksums or
message digests are used to validate scanned ballot images. Manual
recount procedures, California State required one percent manual recount
procedures, physical security measures, and a tightly controlled air gapped
network are all mitigating measures in place.
Access Control
The LA County VSAP Tally 1.0 system was examined for compliance with the
following CVSS 7.8.1 requirements:
For those access control features built in as components of the voting system, the
S-ATA shall design tests to confirm that these security elements work as specified.
Specific activities to be conducted by the S-ATA shall include:
b. Specific tests designed by the S-ATA to verify the correct operation of all
documented access control procedures and capabilities, including tests
designed to circumvent controls provided by the manufacturer. These tests
shall include:
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i. Performing the activities that the jurisdiction will perform in specific
accordance with the manufacturer’s access control policy and
procedures to create a secure system, including procedures for software
and firmware installation
ii. Performing tests intended to bypass or otherwise defeat the resulting
security environment. These tests shall include simulation of attempts to
physically destroy components of the voting system in order to validate
the correct operation of system redundancy and backup capabilities
This review applies to the full scope of system functionality. It includes functionality
for defining the ballot and other pre-voting functions, as well as functions for
casting and storing votes, vote canvassing, vote reporting, and maintenance of the
system’s audit trail.
Results
• The expected outcome for this review was that no issue would be found.
• The actual outcome for this review was a determination that the solution
successfully meets the requirements for access control.
Data Interception and Disruption
The LA County VSAP Tally 1.0 system was examined for compliance with the
following CVSS 7.8.2 requirements:
For systems that use telecommunications, as provided for in section 6 of the
Standards and consistent with California law, to transmit official voting data, the S-
ATA shall review, and conduct tests of, the data interception and prevention
safeguards specified by the manufacturer in its TDP. The S-ATA shall evaluate
safeguards provided by the manufacturer to ensure their proper operation,
including the proper response to the detection of efforts to monitor data or
otherwise compromise the system.
Results
• The expected outcome for this review was that no issue would be found.
• The actual outcome for this review was a determination that the solution
sufficiently protects against data interception and disruption. The utilization
of a physically protected air gapped network that utilizes encryption of data
transmissions between application containers for image processing and
reporting. The connection between the IBML Scanner and the Common
Internet File System (CIFS) file share, however, is not currently encrypted.
Stringent attention to maintaining the air gapped scanner and Tally
environment removes the ability to intercept or modify results as they are
being scanned and processed.
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BURPSuite Professional results:
Target: https://192.168.7.80:9069 and https://192.168.7.80:9068
• 24 instances of Cross Site Scripting (DOM-based) opportunity in select
components of the system. (High Severity) (Tentative confidence)
Potentially a false positive as the confidence is set to tentative.
• 1 instance of SSL Certificate opportunity in the system, (Medium severity)
(Certain confidence). Server’s certificate is not valid for the server’s
hostname, and the server certificate is not trusted. This error has little to no
impact to the overall security of the solution due to the nature of the air
gapped trusted network.
• 24 instances of Client-side JSON injection (DOM-based) opportunity in
select components of the system. (Low Severity) (Firm Confidence).
DOM-based JSON injection may happen when a script includes controllable
data into a string that is parsed as a JSON data structure and then
processed by the application.
• 2 Instances of Strict transport security not enforced. (Low Severity) (Certain
confidence). This allows a potential attacker to modify legitimate user
network traffic to bypass application use of SSL/TLS encryption.
• 50 instances of Information rated vulnerabilities.
Phase III – Telecommunications and Data Transmission
Testing
Phase III testing included testing of system communications, including encryption
of data, as well as protocols and procedures for access authorization
During Phase III testing, tests were exercised in order to verify and validate the
following requirements in accordance with the applicable California Voting System
Standards (CVSS):
• Data transmission
• Confirmation
Data Transmission
The LA County VSAP Tally 1.0 system was examined for compliance with the
following CVSS 6.1.2 requirements
These requirements apply to the use of telecommunications to transmit data for the
preparation of the system for an election, the execution of an election, and the
preservation of the system data and audit trails during and following an election.
While this section does not assume a specific model of voting system operations
and does not assume a specific model for the use of telecommunications to
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support such operations, it does address the following types of data, where
applicable:
Voter Authentication: Coded information that confirms the identity of a voter
for security purposes for a system that transmits votes individually
Ballot Definition: Information that describes to a voting machine the content
and appearance of the ballots to be used in an election
Vote Count: Information representing the tabulation of votes at any level within
the control of the jurisdiction, such as the polling place, precinct or central count
List of Voters: A listing of the individual voters who have cast ballots in a
specific election
Additional data transmissions used to operate a voting system in the conduct of an
election, but not explicitly listed above, are also subject to the requirements of this
section.
Results
• The expected outcome for this review was that no issue would be found.
• The actual outcome for this review was a determination that the system
sufficiently meets the requirements for data transmission. Testing included
Nessus® Vulnerability scans against all connected equipment, as well as
physical inspection of the networking equipment connected to the air
gapped network.
Confirmation
The LA County VSAP Tally 1.0 system was examined for compliance with the
following CVSS 6.2.1 requirement:
Confirmation occurs when the system notifies the user of the successful or
unsuccessful completion of the data transmission, where successful completion is
defined as accurate receipt of the transmitted data. To provide confirmation, the
telecommunications components of a voting system shall notify the user of the
successful or unsuccessful completion of the data transmission. In the event of
unsuccessful transmission the user shall be notified of the action to be taken.
Results
• The expected outcome for this review was that no issue would be found.
• The actual outcome for this review was a determination that official
displayed confirmation of successful transmission between the IBML
scanner and the Linux CIFS file server is not available. It was determined
that if there are bandwidth limitations, mechanical failure, or write errors to
the CIFS file server, the scanner user is presented with a halt message,
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irrespective of the error or condition experienced. An example of a message
is one indicating the max queue length had been exceeded and that
scanning would resume after the queue has finished transmitting.
Successful and unsuccessful transmission messages between the CIFS file
server and the VSAP Tally 1.0 services containers are logged in the
Receiver audit logs; however, as each ballot was received, there were no
visual messages except for the different Tally Queue number fluctuation.
Phase IV – Onsite Testing
Phase IV consisted of an onsite visit to the Los Angeles County vote center.
Phase IV testing included:
• Testing of relevant software and operating system configuration for pertinent
vulnerabilities
• Testing of hardware, including examination of hardware for unused ports
and the security measures applied to those ports
• Examination of physical environment
During Phase IV the production environment was examined to verify and validate
the following requirements:
• In-process audit records
• General access control
• Access control identification
• Access control authentication
• Physical security measures
• Central count location security
• Telecommunications and data transmission
• Access control
In-process Audit Records
The LA County VSAP Tally 1.0 system was examined for compliance with the
following CVSS 5.4.3 requirements:
a. Machine generated error and exception messages to demonstrate
successful recovery.
iv. Notification of system login or access errors, file access errors, and
physical violations of security as they occur, and a summary record of
these events after processing
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Results
• The expected outcome for this review was that no issue would be found.
• The actual outcome for this review was a determination that the system
generates and contains sufficient auditing capability. This includes VSAP
Tally 1.0 logs, Centos Operating System logs, Windows OS logs, ImageTrac
logs.
General Access Control
The LA County VSAP Tally 1.0 system was examined for compliance with the
following CVSS 7.2.1 requirements:
a. Voting system equipment shall provide access control mechanisms
designed to permit authorized access to the voting system and to prevent
unauthorized access to the voting system.
i. Access control mechanisms on the Election Management System (EMS)
shall be capable of identifying and authenticating individuals permitted to
perform operations on the EMS.
b. Voting system equipment shall provide controls that permit or deny access
to the device’s software and files.
c. The default access control permissions shall implement the minimum
permissions needed for each role or group identified by a device.
d. The voting device shall prevent a lower-privileged process from modifying a
higher-privileged process.
e. An administrator of voting system equipment shall authorize privileged
operations.
f. Voting system equipment shall prevent modification to or tampering with
software or firmware through any means other than the documented
procedure for software upgrades.
Results
• The expected outcome for this review was that no issue would be found.
• The actual outcome for this review was a determination that the system
sufficiently provides access controls for the VSAP Tally 1.0 Solution, as well
as the systems that are associated with the solution. The system has
processes and procedures in place to prevent modification/tampering with
software/firmware, as well as physical security including an air gapped
network.
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Access Control Identification
The LA County VSAP Tally 1.0 system was examined for compliance with the
following CVSS 7.2.2 requirements:
a. The voting system shall identify users and processes to which access is
granted and the specific functions and data to which each entity holds
authorized access.
b. Voting system equipment that implements role-based access control shall
support the recommendations for Core RBAC in the ANSI INCITS 359-2004
American National Standard for Information Technology- Role Based
Access Control document.
c. Voting system equipment shall allow the administrator group or role to
configure the permissions and functionality for each identity, group, or role
to include account and group/role creation, modification, and deletion.
Results
• The expected outcome for this review was that no issue would be found.
• The actual outcome for this review was a determination that the access
controls are sufficient for all portions of the VSAP Tally 1.0 environment,
including Scanner environment.
Access Control Authentication
The LA County VSAP Tally 1.0 system was examined for compliance with the
following CVSS 7.3 requirements.
a. Voting system equipment shall authenticate users prior to granting them
access to system functions or data.
b. When private or secret authentication data is stored in voting system
equipment, the data shall be protected to ensure that the confidentiality and
integrity of the data is not violated.
c. Voting system equipment shall allow the administrator group or role to set
and change passwords, pass phrases, and keys.
d. Voting system equipment shall allow privileged groups or roles to be
disabled and allow new individual privileged groups or roles to be created.
e. Voting system equipment shall lock out groups, roles, or individuals after a
specified number of consecutive failed authentication attempts within a
predefined time period.
f. Voting systems shall allow the administrator group or role to configure the
account lock out policy, including the time period within which failed
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attempts must occur, the number of consecutive failed access attempts
allowed before lock out, and the length of time the account is locked out.
g. If the voting system uses a user name and password authentication method,
the voting system shall allow the administrator to enforce password
strength, histories, and expiration.
h. The voting system shall allow the administrator group or role to specify
password strength for all accounts, including minimum password length, use
of capitalized letters, use of numeric characters, and use of non-
alphanumeric characters.
i. The voting system shall enforce password histories, and allow the
administrator to configure the history length.
j. Voting system equipment shall ensure that the username is not used in the
password.
k. Voting systems shall provide a means to automatically expire passwords in
accordance with the voting jurisdiction’s policies.
l. Manufacturers shall develop and document in detail the measures to be
taken in a central counting environment. These measures shall include
physical and procedural controls related to the handling of ballot boxes,
preparing of ballots for counting, counting operations and reporting data.
Results
• The expected outcome for this review was that no issue would be found.
• The actual outcome for this review was a determination that all username
password functionality is maintained by an administrative source. Complex
passwords, lockout history, complexity requirements, and expiration of
passwords can all be enforced at the operating system level and at the
ImageTrac scanning software which sufficiently meets the requirements.
Physical Security Measures
The LA County VSAP Tally 1.0 system was examined for compliance with the
following CVSS 7.3 requirements:
a. Any unauthorized physical access shall leave physical evidence that an
unauthorized event has taken place.
b. Voting systems shall only have physical ports and access points that are
essential to voting operations and to voting system testing and auditing.
c. An event log entry that identifies the name of the affected device shall be
generated if a component connected to a piece of voting system equipment
is disconnected while polls are open.
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d. Ports disabled while polls are open shall only be re-enabled by authorized
administrators.
e. Access points, such as covers and panels, shall be secured by locks or
tamper evident seals or tamper resistant countermeasures shall be
implemented so that system owners can monitor access to voting system
components through these points.
f. Ballot boxes shall be designed such that any unauthorized physical access
results in physical evidence that an unauthorized event has taken place.
Results
• The expected outcome for this review was that no issue would be found.
• The actual outcome for this review was a determination that the system
sufficiently meets the requirements for physical security.
Central Count Location Security
The LA County VSAP Tally 1.0 system was examined for compliance with the
following CVSS 7.3.2 requirement:
Manufacturers shall develop and document in detail the measures to be taken in a
central counting environment. These measures shall include physical and
procedural controls related to the handling of ballot boxes, preparing of ballots for
counting, counting operations and reporting data.
Results
• The expected outcome for this review was that no issue would be found.
• The actual outcome for this review was a determination that the solution
fully documents and implements processes and procedures for securing the
central count location. These include physical security measures, procedural
controls for maintaining the Air Gap network, protection and handling of
ballots, and reporting of data.
o Observation: No specific details pertaining to the security measures to
network switching equipment. Security practices for the air gapped
network were observed that help to enhance the overall security of the
solution but were not documented anywhere in the requirements.
o Observation: There is reference to maintaining tamper-evident seal
numbers multiple times throughout the documentation; however, there is
no direct reference to the tamper evident seal log that was in use.
Documentation of the procedures for maintaining such a log including
where it’s stored and who has access to the log is needed.
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Data Transmission
The LA County VSAP Tally 1.0 system was examined for compliance with the
following CVSS 6.1.2 requirements
These requirements apply to the use of telecommunications to transmit data for the
preparation of the system for an election, the execution of an election, and the
preservation of the system data and audit trails during and following an election.
While this section does not assume a specific model of voting system operations
and does not assume a specific model for the use of telecommunications to
support such operations, it does address the following types of data, where
applicable:
Voter Authentication: Coded information that confirms the identity of a voter
for security purposes for a system that transmits votes individually
Ballot Definition: Information that describes to a voting machine the content
and appearance of the ballots to be used in an election
Vote Count: Information representing the tabulation of votes at any level within
the control of the jurisdiction, such as the polling place, precinct or central count
List of Voters: A listing of the individual voters who have cast ballots in a
specific election
Additional data transmissions used to operate a voting system in the conduct of an
election, but not explicitly listed above, are also subject to the requirements of this
section.
Results
• The expected outcome for this review was that no issue would be found.
• The actual outcome for this review was a determination that the system
sufficiently meets the requirements for data transmission. Testing included
Nessus® Vulnerability scans against all connected equipment, as well as
physical inspection of the networking equipment connected to the air
gapped network.
Access Control
The LA County VSAP Tally 1.0 system was examined for compliance with the
following CVSS 7.8.1 requirement:
For those access control features built in as components of the voting system, the
S-ATA shall design tests to confirm that these security elements work as specified.
Specific activities to be conducted by the S-ATA shall include:
b. Specific tests designed by the S-ATA to verify the correct operation of all
documented access control procedures and capabilities, including tests
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designed to circumvent controls provided by the manufacturer. These tests
shall include:
i. Performing the activities that the jurisdiction will perform in specific
accordance with the manufacturer’s access control policy and
procedures to create a secure system, including procedures for software
and firmware installation
ii. Performing tests intended to bypass or otherwise defeat the resulting
security environment. These tests shall include simulation of attempts to
physically destroy components of the voting system in order to validate
the correct operation of system redundancy and backup capabilities
This review applies to the full scope of system functionality. It includes functionality
for defining the ballot and other pre-voting functions, as well as functions for
casting and storing votes, vote canvassing, vote reporting, and maintenance of the
system’s audit trail.
Results
• The expected outcome for this review was that no issue would be found.
• The actual outcome for this review was a determination that the solution
successfully meets the requirements for access control.
Data Interception and Disruption
The LA County VSAP Tally 1.0 system was examined for compliance with the
following CVSS 7.8.2 requirement:
For systems that use telecommunications, as provided for in section 6 of the
Standards and consistent with California law, to transmit official voting data, the
SATA shall review, and conduct tests of, the data interception and prevention
safeguards specified by the manufacturer in its TDP. The S-ATA shall evaluate
safeguards provided by the manufacturer to ensure their proper operation,
including the proper response to the detection of efforts to monitor data or
otherwise compromise the system.
Results
• The expected outcome for this review was that no issue would be found.
• The actual outcome for this review was a determination that the solution
sufficiently protects against data interception and disruption. The utilization
of a physically protected air gapped network helps improve a solution that
only employs encryption of data transmissions between application
containers for image processing and reporting and not all communications.
The connection between the IBML Scanner and the CIFS file share is not
currently encrypted. Stringent attention to maintaining the air gapped
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scanner and Tally environment removes the ability to intercept or modify
results as they are being scanned and processed.
Security Findings
This section discusses any Findings from the LA County VSAP Tally 1.0 system
review, as well as potential impacts.
Documentation Review Discrepancies
During the security documentation review of the VSAP Tally 1.0 system, it was
determined that the documentation addressed, in some way, all of the
requirements.
However, in some of the cases it was determined that some of the documentation
was vague or warranted additional comment:
• CVSS 7.4.6: Documentation is only present to validate VSAP Tally
Containers and Trusted Build outputs, and base package installation of
COTS software. Detailed documentation for validation of all storage
locations associated with election specific information was missing.
• CVSS 7.4.5: Documentation was present for creation of a build environment
for the VSAP Tally solution as well as building the environment; however,
the documentation has limited references as to how software is distributed
and where the certified copy of the software will be stored. There is mention
in the documentation that the solution will only be used by LA County.
• CVSS 7.4.4.b: There is reference to parts of the system being considered
static, dynamic or a mix of both, the list of files was not complete or
extensive.
• CVSS 7.4.2: Documentation was present indicating that due to performance
requirements the solution will not actively utilize COTS anti-virus software
during operation of the solution. There are, however, supplemental
mitigation steps including anti-virus and vulnerability scanning of the
environment systems prior to being introduced to an air gapped network.
• CVSS 7.4.1: Documentation was provided that describes the basic overall
features requirements and processes for creation and management of an air
gapped network. In some cases it is detailed, such has how to update
software or firmware on the air gapped systems and software without
internet connectivity. No full procedure for a start to finish air gapped
network implementation including hardware connectivity is available.
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Functional Review Discrepancies
During the functional security testing of the VSAP Tally 1.0 system the following
findings were discovered:
CVSS 7.4.2
• The actual outcome for this review was a determination that during
operations, the systems within the Scanner environment as well as the
systems within the VSAP Tally environment do not actively use COTS anti-
virus protection. The system instead utilizes initial malware/anti-virus and
vulnerability scanning prior to the systems being introduced to the air
gapped network. These are mitigation steps that are being relied upon
instead of active malicious software protection.
CVSS 7.4.6
• The actual outcome for this review was a determination that there are
validation methods to verify the VSAP Tally 1.0 trusted build output as well
as a JSON file created with a list of every container generated by the build
process and a corresponding hash value. Each of the COTS products
contain a hash of the single COTS file installation file(s). This indicates that
the software validation is done prior to the installation of the system.
• The actual outcome for this review was a determination that there are
processes and procedures for creation of SHA512 Hash codes during the
trusted build for both the system build outputs and SHA256 hashes of each
of the Docker service containers. All COTS Software contains verifiable
HASH values to validate that the correct version of the software is installed.
o The system has no protections to prevent processes from installing
software except for manual processes and procedures and physical
security and access controls to prevent unauthorized installation.
o The VSAP Tally 1.0 system utilizes processes and procedures and
physical security and access controls to prevent previous versions of the
system from being installed.
o The software update package is not digitally signed.
o The Solution doesn’t currently utilize an automated process to prevent
unwanted installations
o The system doesn’t have a way to provide a verification method of all
system storage locations, only the VSAP Tally 1.0 solution, and the
COTS products installers.
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CVSS 7.6.1
• The actual outcome for this review was a determination that portions of this
requirement are not applicable. The system scans already marked ballots
which are then processed by the VSAP Tally system.
o No checksums or message digests are used to validate scanned ballot
images.
• Manual recount procedures, California State required one percent manual
recount procedures, physical security measures and a tightly controlled air
gapped network are all mitigating measures in place.
CVSS 7.8.2
• The actual outcome for this review was a determination that the solution
sufficiently protects against data interception and disruption.
o The solution currently does not provide end to end transmission security.
The VSAP Tally 1.0 solution utilizes encryption of data transmissions
between Application containers for image processing and reporting. The
connection between the IBML Scanner and the CIFS file share, however,
is not transmitted using encryption.
o Stringent attention to maintaining the air gapped scanner and Tally
environment removes the ability to intercept or modify results as they are
being scanned and processed.
Telecommunications and Data Review Discrepancies
During the telecommunications and data transmission testing of the VSAP Tally 1.0
system, it was determined that the transmission process does not currently encrypt
data transmissions end to end and the connections between the IBML scanner and
the CIFS file server are not encrypted. Connectivity between the VSAP Tally 1.0
containers and the User interface are all encrypted using OpenSSL.
It was also noted that there are no displayed confirmations of successful
transmissions of scanned ballots to the (Common Internet File System) CIFS file
server. There are, however, visible messages if an error is encountered notifying
the scan operator that there is an issue with the current scan process. An example
of messages observed were: (1) the queue limit exceeded message where too
many ballots were in the queue waiting to be transferred, and (2) an unsuccessful
write message. It should be noted that the VSAP Tally 1.0 system records all of the
transmission messages concerning ballot images, (successful, failed, and out-
stacked) in the Receiver audit logs.
Another observation is that Server Message Block (SMB) signing is not configured
which may allow man-in-the-middle style attacks against CIFS file servers if the
opportunity was presented. The impact of this finding is negligible due to the fact
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that the environment is protected by a stringent air gapped network configuration
and the SMB signing may have been intentionally disabled to prevent performance
issues.
Onsite Review Discrepancies
During the onsite security review of the VSAP Tally 1.0 system:
• It was confirmed that during operations, the systems within the Scanner
environment as well as the systems within the VSAP Tally 1.0 environment
do not actively use COTS anti-virus protection. The system instead utilizes
initial malware/anti-virus and vulnerability scanning prior to the systems
being introduced to the air gapped network. These are mitigation steps that
are being relied upon instead of active malicious software protection.
• The connection between the IBML Scanner and the CIFS file share is not
currently encrypted.
• The SMB signing is not configured which may allow man-in-the-middle style
attacks against CIFS file servers if the opportunity was presented. The
impact of this finding is negligible due to the fact that the environment is
protected by a stringent air gapped network configuration and the SMB
signing may have been intentionally disabled to prevent performance
issues.
o Observation: No specific details pertaining to the security measures for
network switching equipment were provided. Security practices were
observed for the air gapped network that help to enhance the overall
security of the solution but were not listed anywhere in the
documentation.
o Observation: There is reference to maintaining tamper-evident seal
numbers multiple times throughout the documentation; however, there is
no direct reference to the tamper evident seal log that was in use.
Documentation of procedures for maintaining such a log including where
it’s stored and who has access to the log is needed.
Vulnerabilities
Should any vulnerability be discovered, SLI identifies the particular requirement
applicable to each vulnerability.
To the extent possible, reported vulnerabilities will include an indication of whether
the exploitation of the vulnerability would require access by:
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• Voter: Usually has low knowledge of the voting machine design and
configuration. May carry out attacks designed by others. They have access
to the machine(s) for less than an hour.
• Poll worker: Usually has low knowledge of the voting machine design and
configuration. Some may have more advanced knowledge. May carry out
attacks designed by others. They have access to the machine(s) for up to
one week, but all physical security has been put into place before the
machines are received.
• Elections official insider: Usually has a wide range of knowledge of the
voting machine design and configuration. May have unrestricted access for
long periods of time. Their designated activities include:
o Set up and pre-election procedures;
o Election operation;
o Post-election procedures; and
o Archiving and storage operations.
• Vendor insider: Usually has great knowledge of the voting machine design
and configuration. They have unlimited access to the machine before it is
delivered to the purchaser and, thereafter, may have unrestricted access
when performing warranty and maintenance service and when providing
election administration services.
SLI does not verify or demonstrate exploitability of the vulnerability but the report of
the vulnerability will identify factors involved in the exploitation.
Any vulnerability theories developed review team members shall, to the extent
possible, be referred to the Secretary of State staff.
Documentation Review Vulnerabilities
During the security documentation review of the VSAP Tally 1.0 system, it was
determined that there were no specific vulnerabilities found. The system
documentation covers all the CVSS requirements; however, in some cases the
documentation could be improved to provide more thorough information.
Functional Review Vulnerabilities
During the functional security testing of the VSAP Tally 1.0 system, it was
determined
BURPSuite Professional Results:
Target: https://192.168.7.80:9069 and https://192.168.7.80:9068
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• 24 instances of Cross Site Scripting (DOM-based) opportunity in select
components of the system. (High Severity) (Tentative confidence)
Potentially a false positive as the confidence is set to tentative.
• 1 instance of SSL Certificate opportunity in the system, (Medium severity)
(Certain confidence). Server’s certificate is not valid for the server’s
hostname, and the server certificate is not trusted. This error has little to no
impact to the overall security of the solution due to the nature of the air
gapped trusted network.
• 24 instances of Client-side JSON injection (DOM-based) opportunity in
select components of the system. (Low Severity) (Firm Confidence).
DOM-based JSON injection may happen when a script includes controllable
data into a string that is parsed as a JSON data structure and then
processed by the application.
• 2 Instances of Strict transport security not enforced. (Low Severity) (Certain
confidence). This allows a potential attacker to modify legitimate user
network traffic to bypass application use of SSL/TLS encryption.
• 50 instances of Information rated vulnerabilities.
Telecommunications and Data Review Vulnerabilities
During the telecommunications and data transmission testing of the VSAP Tally 1.0
system, it was determined Nessus® Vulnerability scans indicated the following
results:
• 10% Medium vulnerabilities
• 3% Low vulnerabilities
• 86% Informational vulnerabilities
Medium Vulnerabilities:
Five SSL vulnerabilities that relate to the use of self-signed SSL certificates. In the
proposed/tested environment, the impact of these vulnerabilities is negligible and
does not negatively impact the overall security of the solution’s networked
environments.
Three SMB Signing not required that could allow an unauthenticated remote
attacker to conduct man-in-the-middle attacks against the SMB server shared. It
should be noted that SMB signing could negatively impact performance on the
SMB server due to having to sign and verify each packet. In the proposed/tested
environment, the impact of this vulnerability is negligible and does not negatively
impact the overall security of the solution’s networked environments.
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Low vulnerabilities:
Three SSH Server CBC mode ciphers enabled may allow attackers to recover
plaintext from cipher text when using SSH for server connections. In the
proposed/tested environment, the impact of this vulnerability is negligible and does
not negatively impact the overall security of the solution’s networked environments.
SSL RC4 cipher suite supported. This indicates that the RC4 cipher that was
compromised may allow an attacker to recover plaintext from cipher text if the
cipher is used. In the proposed/tested environment, the impact of this vulnerability
is negligible and does not negatively impact the overall security of the solution’s
networked environments.
Informational Vulnerabilities:
The rest of the vulnerabilities are informational and cover informational details
about each system scanned. These vulnerabilities are of informational use only
and in most cases are only used as reconnaissance information about the target
system.
Onsite Review Vulnerabilities
During the onsite Security review of the VSAP Tally 1.0 system, it was determined
Nessus® Vulnerability scans of the entire networked solution indicated the following
results:
• 10% Medium vulnerabilities
• 3% Low vulnerabilities
• 86% Informational vulnerabilities
Medium Vulnerabilities:
Five SSL vulnerabilities that relate to the use of self-signed SSL certificates, in the
proposed/tested environment, the impact of these vulnerabilities is negligible and
does not negatively impact the overall security of the solution’s networked
environments.
Three SMB Signing not required that could allow an unauthenticated remote
attacker to conduct man-in-the-middle attacks against the SMB shared server. It
should be noted that SMB signing could negatively impact performance on the
SMB server due to having to sign and verify each packet. In the proposed / tested
environment, the impact of this vulnerability is negligible and does not negatively
impact the overall security of the solution’s networked environments.
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Low vulnerabilities:
Three SSH Server CBC mode ciphers enabled may allow attackers to recover
plaintext from cipher text when using SSH for server connections. In the
proposed/tested environment, the impact of this vulnerability is negligible and does
not negatively impact the overall security of the solution’s networked environments.
SSL RC4 cipher suite supported. This indicates that the RC4 cipher that was
compromised may allow an attacker to recover plaintext from cipher text if the
cipher is used. In the proposed / tested environment, the impact of this vulnerability
is negligible and does not negatively impact the overall security of the solution’s
networked environments.
Informational Vulnerabilities:
The rest of the vulnerabilities are informational and cover informational details
about each system scanned. These vulnerabilities are of informational use only
and in most cases are only used as reconnaissance information about the target
system.
Conclusion
Five minor findings were located within the security documentation review portion
of the LA County VSAP Tally 1.0 system documentation review related to vague or
partially missing documentation. Overall, each of the requirements is addressed in
the documentation though in some cases more documentation may be required to
sufficiently detail system capabilities to meet the requirements.
No Vulnerabilities were located within the security documentation review portion of
the LA County VSAP Tally 1.0 system.
Three findings were written during the telecommunications and data transmission
testing portion of the LA County VSAP Tally 1.0 system. However, the impact to
the overall security posture of the solution as a whole is minimal. Partial
transmission encryption, no SMB signing on CIFS file shares, and no visual
transmission successful messages.
In total there were fifty eight distinct vulnerabilities located within the
telecommunications and data transmission testing portion of the LA County VSAP
Tally 1.0 system.
Six medium severity vulnerabilities:
1. SMB signing not required
2. SSL Certificate cannot be trusted
3. SSL Certificate signed using weak hashing algorithm
4. SSL certificate with wrong host name
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5. SSL medium strength cipher suites supported
6. SSL Self-signed Certificate
Two low severity vulnerabilities:
1. SSH Server CBC mode ciphers enabled
2. SSL RC4 cipher suites supported.
Fifty informational severity vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities are of an
informational nature and include recon information that helps to identify the system,
including open ports, OS type and version and services detected.
The vulnerabilities explored and detected are believed to be negligible and have
little or no impact on the overall security of the system.
Four findings were located within the functional security testing portion of the LA
County VSAP Tally 1.0 system:
CVSS 7.4.2 requires that malicious software protection software be in use on the
current voting system, in the case of the VSAP Tally 1.0 solution, a choice to forgo
anti-virus and malicious software protection was made to maintain performance
requirements. The mitigation steps include scanning for both vulnerabilities and
malicious software prior to being introduced to the solution network environment.
Includes stringent air gap network management and monitoring including physical
security measures such as lock/key for server rack access and all accessible USB
ports are disabled or have security seals.
CVSS 7.4.6 requires extensive software validation for installation and verification of
voting software solutions onto equipment. The outcome of the review is that the
system provides verification of VSAP Tally 1.0 installation files, and Docker
container for every instance of a Docker container created. The process also
includes verification of all COTS software installation files prior to being deployed.
• The system has no protections to prevent processes from installing software
except for manual processes and procedures and physical security and
access controls to prevent unauthorized installation.
• The VSAP Tally system utilizes processes and procedures and physical
security and access controls to prevent previous versions of the system are
not installed.
• The Software update package is not digitally signed.
• The Solution doesn’t currently utilize an automated process to prevent
unwanted installations
• The system doesn’t have a way to provide a verification method of all
system storage locations, only the VSAP Tally 1.0 solution and the COTS
products installers.
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CVSS 7.6.1 requires that voting systems that utilize telecommunications to
communicate between system components have the same security requirements
as other system hardware and software and data function.
• The system scans already marked ballots which are then processed by the
VSAP Tally 1.0 system.
o No checksums or message digests are used to validate scanned ballot
images.
o No standard error detection or correction methods were observed.
CVSS 7.8.2
• Stringent attention to maintaining the air gapped scanner and Tally
environment removes the ability to intercept or modify results as they are
being scanned and processed.
o The solution currently does not provide end to end transmission security.
The VSAP Tally 1.0 solution utilizes encryption of data transmissions
between Application containers for image processing and reporting. The
connection between the IBML Scanner and the CIFS file share, however,
is not transmitted using encryption.
Vulnerabilities were located within the functional security testing portion of the LA
County VSAP Tally 1.0 system that were determined to have a low impact to the
overall security of the system due to the extended measures taken to provide an
air gapped central count network. All of the vulnerabilities found require that
unauthorized devices or equipment be in place to intercept and or attack the
systems on a closed isolated network.
Three Findings and two observations were located within the Onsite security
testing portion of the LA County VSAP Tally 1.0 system. The impact to the overall
security posture of the solution as a whole is minimal.
In total there were fifty eight distinctive vulnerabilities located within the
telecommunications and data transmission testing portion of the LA County VSAP
Tally 1.0 system.
Six distinctive medium severity vulnerabilities:
1. SMB signing not required
2. SSL Certificate cannot be trusted
3. SSL Certificate signed using weak hashing algorithm
4. SSL certificate with wrong host name
5. SSL medium strength cipher suites supported
6. SSL Self-signed Certificate
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Two low severity vulnerabilities:
1. SSH Server CBC mode ciphers enabled
2. SSL RC4 cipher suites supported.
Fifty informational severity vulnerabilities: these vulnerabilities are of an
informational nature and include recon information that helps to identify the system,
including open ports, OS type and version and services detected. The
vulnerabilities explored and detected are believed to be negligible and have little or
no impact on the overall security of the system.
Final Report
Some issues are of note, as listed in the “Conclusion” section above, though none
that are not able to be mitigated.
As per the direction given by the California Secretary of State, this software testing
report does not include any recommendation as to whether or not the system
should be approved.
End of Security and Telecommunications Test Report
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