EAC - Voluntary Voting System Guidelines

Name : | John S. Groh
Organization : | Election Systems & Software
Post Date : | 9/30/2005
Section Comments
Section : | 6.4.6.3.4
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Comment : | """Voting system equipment shall provide a read-only external interface to access the software on the system … (key locked/sealed for the interface indicator light to show when interface is enabled must be disabled during voting direct read-only access to software location without use of installed software)""" Comment: Section I-6.4.6.2 requires the vendor to provide a process for validating the software/firmware in a system. Section I-6.4.6.3.4 requires that the devices in a system have a read-only interface for obtaining such information from a device without altering the information on a device. It is unlikely that some of the devices in use today have the ability to provide this information or to be altered to do so. Also, the requirement for a read-only interface is one that seems unattainable. We know of no way to install an interface on a box that will be, by interface specification, read-only. Although one could restrict it to read-only programmatically, that is not what this requirement stipulates. .