The worst case of password abuse - ever.

[Dionysos]

For more info:
http://www.cdi.org/blair/permissive-action-links.cfm

Forwarded Email:

This is just Strangelovesque....

What was the password which controlled the firing of America's ICBMs for years during the height of the Cold War?

00000000

That's right. For *all* of them. The Permissive Action Link codes for all of Americas missiles provided less protection than on an average suitcase.

[It's fair to note that there were a lot of other controls, such as the dual key system. However, it appears that a pair of rogue controllers could have unleashed Armmagedon - pt]

Bruce Blair's Nuclear Column Home Page <http://www.cdi.org/blair/>
Keeping Presidents in the Nuclear Dark
(Episode #1: The Case of the Missing "Permissive Action Links")
Bruce G. Blair, Ph.D <http://www.cdi.org/aboutcdi/bruce_blair1.html>,
CDI President, bblair@cdi.org <mailto:bblair@cdi.org>
Feb. 11, 2004

Last month I asked Robert McNamara, the secretary of defense during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, what he believed back in the 1960s was the status of technical locks on the Minuteman intercontinental missiles. These long-range nuclear-tipped missiles first came on line during the Cuban missile crisis and grew to a force of 1,000 during the McNamara years - the backbone of the U.S. strategic deterrent through the late 1960s. McNamara replied, in his trade-mark,
assertively confident manner that he personally saw to it that these special locks (known to wonks as "Permissive Action Links") were installed on the Minuteman force, and that he regarded them as essential to strict central control and preventing unauthorized launch.

When the history of the nuclear cold war is finally comprehensively written, this McNamara vignette will be one of a long litany of items pointing to the ignorance of presidents and defense secretaries and other nuclear security officials about the true state of nuclear affairs during their time in the saddle. What I then told McNamara about his vitally important locks elicited this response: "I am shocked, absolutely shocked and outraged. Who the hell authorized that?" What he had just learned from me was that the locks had been installed, but everyone knew the combination.

The Strategic Air Command (SAC) in Omaha quietly decided to set the "locks" to all zeros in order to circumvent this safeguard. During the early to mid-1970s, during my stint as a Minuteman launch officer, they still had not been changed. Our launch checklist in fact instructed us, the firing crew, to double-check the locking panel in our underground launch bunker to ensure that no digits other than zero had been inadvertently dialed into the panel. SAC remained far less concerned about unauthorized launches than about the potential of these safeguards to interfere with the implementation of wartime launch orders. And so the "secret unlock code" during the height of the nuclear crises of the Cold War remained constant at 00000000.

[Hey Bubu]

Spaceballs suddenly comes to mind.




Fire ze missiles

[Cock Puncher]

Originally posted by TypeH
Spaceballs suddenly comes to mind.

I was thinking the excact same thing

[MysteryMeat]

I can see it though, for a couple of reasons:

1) No one in their right mind would thing that anyone in their right mind would choose that for a launch code.

2) Of the code-breaking software that I've seen (albeit it hasn't been many, but hey), there are 2 patterns: With knowledge of the # of digits (say 5 digits), sequencing begins at 00001; without knowledge, sequencing begins at 01.

Americas military has been stuck on stupid for a long time. See we can't blame everything on Rumesfeld and Bush

[question]

Yeah. I agree here. It's like hiding something in plain view. Chances are, most people aren't going to recognize it. It's wreckless, but it's also very intuitive.

Originally posted by MysteryMeat
I can see it though, for a couple of reasons:

1) No one in their right mind would thing that anyone in their right mind would choose that for a launch code.

2) Of the code-breaking software that I've seen (albeit it hasn't been many, but hey), there are 2 patterns: With knowledge of the # of digits (say 5 digits), sequencing begins at 00001; without knowledge, sequencing begins at 01.

[Ash]

Jurys still out on this one. I'm checking with a freind of a friend who was a minuteman operator to see if this is true. Scary if it is.

[Hey Bubu]

Only other possible scenario I could see this being done for is; if for some weird event, all high ranking officials are killed and there is just a basic underlying force with the ability to deploy a counter-attack. This basic force would still have the power to launch said attack without need the lost high ranking officials.

[Dionysos]

Originally posted by Ash
Jurys still out on this one. I'm checking with a freind of a friend who was a minuteman operator to see if this is true. Scary if it is.

I got this off a list run by Dave Farber, a man who I take as a reputable source.

http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~farber/

[Xodiac]

Originally posted by TypeH
Only other possible scenario I could see this being done for is; if for some weird event, all high ranking officials are killed and there is just a basic underlying force with the ability to deploy a counter-attack. This basic force would still have the power to launch said attack without need the lost high ranking officials.

Have you seen "Dr Strangelove"?

[Hey Bubu]

Originally posted by Xodiac
Have you seen "Dr Strangelove"?

It's been awhile, but yeah.

[hepkatmama]

i love that movie

it won't be the first time kubrick prophesized the future.

[xryptic]

And for something somewhat related:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~kalliste/nukearse.htm

[thefncrow]

Originally posted by MysteryMeat
I can see it though, for a couple of reasons:

1) No one in their right mind would thing that anyone in their right mind would choose that for a launch code.

2) Of the code-breaking software that I've seen (albeit it hasn't been many, but hey), there are 2 patterns: With knowledge of the # of digits (say 5 digits), sequencing begins at 00001; without knowledge, sequencing begins at 01.

The biggest problem isn't that the code was 000000000.

The biggest problem is that this code was entered into the tumblers at all times. It could have been 123456789, or 111111111, or 751248315, but if its always entered into the tumblers, then the code is useless. Its like having a lock on your front door, but you leave the key in it at all times. What security does that actually give you?

[TheHawk]

Originally posted by xryptic
And for something somewhat related:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~kalliste/nukearse.htm

awesome read, thanks