EAC - Voluntary Voting System Guidelines

Name : | Ron Crane
Organization : | N/A
Post Date : | 9/30/2005
Section Comments
Section : | .20.1.3.1.3
Page no. : |
Line no.: |
Comment : | 7b. b. Vol. II, §1.3.1.3 trusts vendors far too much. The focus of software evaluation (code review) is on "completeness, consistency, correctness, modifiability, structuredness and traceability...along with modularity and construction." There is no mention of "security". Further on this section compounds this problem by saying: The test lab may inspect COTS generated software source code in the preparation of test plans and conduct some minimal scanning or sampling to check for embedded code or unauthorized changes. Otherwise, the COTS source code is not subject to the full code review and testing. For purposes of code analysis, the COTS units shall be treated as unexpanded macros. Of course an unscrupulous vendor might classify a given module as "COTS generated", but include malware in it. The inspection suggested by §1.3.1.3 would not detect this subterfuge.