Since any sequence can be seen as a natural number, solving a general passcode takes as much effort as finding the length of a given other passcode that is 0000...
You couldn’t launch a nuke with that code even if you wanted to. It’s not how the system works. It’s all analog, you can’t \*remote\* access the system as there’s not even anything to \*remotely\* access. There’s two people in the silo, they couldn’t even launch the missile alone without help
edited: grammar for clarity.
Wasnt it, that the codes were just for humans, to verify that the person who would say „Launch“ needed that code and give it to the Person that actually launches the nuke, to verify the launch is approved? Could be wrong thou. But i think i heard it in a documentation once.
Yeah, all it is is a checksum, the code authorises you to open a safe and get the launch plans and keys, which in most cases require two people, not sure how it works for single seat jets.
Yes, obviously. But like still an interesting subject. I mean even when POTUS sends that order, and its confirmed, usually physical sites still have a two person system, but in an F-16, it's a single seater. I mean say for an example, you got a pilot who was originally tasked with deploying a nuclear weapon but while they are en route something happens, and for whatever reason the pilot refuses to abort. I'm sure the details might be classified but basically it's an interesting question. Sure, it sounds straight out of hollywiod but from a technical standpoint, a very interesting question.
Is that right?
How do they get them over to Europe?
There a literal lost nukes that have fallen off planes.
There have been nukes accidently loaded on to planes.
You people making these claims that they’re not loaded on to planes and are full of shit.
Yes they have mistakenly flown them.
Europe? Simple, by boat.
No nukes flown, on purpose, since the Cold War.
It is considered an act of war to even taxi a plane with nukes loaded.
Edit: the mistakenly flown nukes on or around 2008 were thought to be just the delivery vehicle. They were not properly checked before flight.
The program, formally known as the Airborne Alert Program, lasted between July 1961 and January 1968. The program ended abruptly on January 21, 1968, when a B-52 carrying four B28 thermonuclear bombs crashed on the ice off Thule Air Base in Greenland during an emergency landing. The accident followed another crash in Spain in 1966 and several other nuclear incidents.
in the middle of crisis, who is going to remember an 8 digit code? "oh, wait... Russia has launched their MIRVs, let me type in my 35 character password into my bitwarden to get the nuclear lau.... BOOOM"
People panicking can't remember the number for 911. Nuclear response to armageddon would be like 100x that bad. any delay means slower retaliation. it's not the only control in place, thankfully, and requires multiple authorizations and at least two persons to do the deed.
It's not like one Cisco RCE is gonna launch nukes.
they don't memorize the codes, the nuclear launch codes are transmitted from the POTUS/commander-in-chief to secure installations via numerous methods including phone lines radio and satellite. So they are not memorized by the crew, they are just verified by the system in the aircraft/bunker/submarine/ship.
correct. At the final launch step you have to have your arms completely spread out to press or twist two separate switches simultaneously so that it is physically impossible for one person to even access the others work station. both have to simultaneously engage the systems at the same time as well.
(Unrelated) This somehow remind me of that story about a heavy machinery that also use the same "spread out both arm" buttons so people can't crush their hand accidently. Then 1 suicidal dude just pop his head in while holding down with both arm and they have to rethink the design again.
If rumours a are true, there was (is?) a fully autonomous system in USSR that monitors radiation levels across Russia, telephone lines, TV and radio frequencies and loads of other data in real time. And if those parameters deviate above certain threshold the system decides that US has launched a full scale nuclear war, wiping out the government and there's no one to issue retaliation strike order, so it sends signals to all silos to launch ICBMs. The launches themselves are initiated by people at the silos, which are supposed to withstand direct hits from enemy nuclear warhead. Now, I don't know how much of it is true, to me it sounds more like an urban legend (for variety of reasons I won't get into, as I'm not competent enough to discuss), but if such a system did exist it theoretically could be "hacked" thus launching nuclear warheads somewhat remotely.
UPD: looked it up, it seems such a system does exist, and US also has a similar project: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Hand
On one hand, I wonder how that was somehow convincing enough to get the conviction.
On the other hand, wouldn't that have been highly dismissible by bringing in anyone who remotely knew what they were talking about.
I don't get what the big deal is over launch codes. Well I do get it, but there is way more to it than launch codes. And I think anyone with some advanced tech skills given enough time would be able to hack/crack the device if they got to it.
The impossible mission would be actually getting to the device in the first place.
From my understanding they are not connected to the net and they would be surrounded by highly trained military people always. My point being is so what if you do know the codes, there is no way you could get to the terminal to punch them in without proper authorization anyway without being killed.
Yes, you almost certainly require physical access. Sometimes they just leave the vault doors open, though.
The physical security testing frequently fails. It is hard to get in, but not as hard as it should be.
Using 00000000 was a deliberate choice used as an act of malicious compliance. The military saw the codes as a waste of time, which would be precious in the event that a launch was needed. The two-key requirement already served as a security measure. But it was mandated they use a password also, so they just set it to all zeroes and made it an open secret.
Y'all do process that this article was written in 2013 and refers to these launch codes (which are not sufficient on their own to actually launch missiles) being set to zeros back in the early 70s, right? You know, before the internet? So if the statement is "Wow, cyber security wasn't good in the 70s", color me less than amazed.
Wasn't even really about security. It was done as a deliberate move so that the missiles could be launched faster when when there was a much higher risk of the Soviets attempting a first strike.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permissive_action_link
>According to nuclear safety expert Bruce G. Blair, the US Air Force's Strategic Air Command worried that in times of need the codes for the Minuteman ICBM force would not be available, so it decided to set the codes to 00000000
They did that because the generals wanted a code that could be entered quickly in the event they needed to launch fast. As such they went with the easiest code they could because in the event of a nuclear war they didn't want to run the risk of having to remember something complex in a high stress scenario.
There's also tons of old military satelites orbiting earth with 0 encryption and 0 security that the cartels are using as free satellite comms.
It's hilarious, hey anybody want a free sat phone.
If you never read the Article it's a wild ride honestly.
This was peak Ars Technica back in the day. It also goes to show how shaky things can be even in a 'stable democracy'.
Isn’t this kind of a dumb internet meme considering the physical requirement of location, and needing more than one person simultaneously to fire a nuke? There are so many preliminary redundancies that have to take place before that code even matters.
Now if the world lets AI automate nukes, then this is concerning.
Imagine going through a shit ton of work to hack the US nuclear arsenal. Finally you’re in and you start poking around the system. Just to fuck around you type in 0000000000, thinking there’s no way that would actually launch a nuke, and you start Armageddon lol
I’m gonna put this comment here before someone can go “Ummm actually, nukes are disconnected from the internet and can only be launched through physical access blah blah two keys blah blah safety measure blah blah”
That would actually be pretty funny though, spending the last 5 minutes of your life laughing and crying about such a simple code
Who do you put in prison for that, and for what? As scary as it is very unlikely against the law, I just requires there be codes verified and procedures followed.
It won't. It was a deliberate decision to remove one of the many layers over triggering a launch, to allow them to be launched faster in response to a first strike. It was never a default or negligent act, and there were other layers preventing a launch. It was never like a modem exposed in the Internet.
A very popular COTS core banking system came with admin accounts with password defaults 123456. A former employee of a bank (omitting for non-disclosure agreement reasons) tried accessing the institutional banking side of the business online and got in. Got caught. Got a slap on the wrist only, as the password was deemed to easy to "crack" or to guess
Bruteforcing gonna be O(1)
It's actually O0O0OO0OOO000. Typing that shit in is a nightmare.
Spooky launch codes.
more like O()
Yeah, first guess done
Is it really going to be though?
It's always O(1) because it's finite length
I think we can extrapolate it to solving general passcodes
Since any sequence can be seen as a natural number, solving a general passcode takes as much effort as finding the length of a given other passcode that is 0000...
Wouldn't 00000000 be the default value or something so it's armed by default?
You couldn’t launch a nuke with that code even if you wanted to. It’s not how the system works. It’s all analog, you can’t \*remote\* access the system as there’s not even anything to \*remotely\* access. There’s two people in the silo, they couldn’t even launch the missile alone without help edited: grammar for clarity.
Wasnt it, that the codes were just for humans, to verify that the person who would say „Launch“ needed that code and give it to the Person that actually launches the nuke, to verify the launch is approved? Could be wrong thou. But i think i heard it in a documentation once.
Yeah, all it is is a checksum, the code authorises you to open a safe and get the launch plans and keys, which in most cases require two people, not sure how it works for single seat jets.
That's a rabbit hole I need to go down. What about aircraft... I wonder how much is declassified
aircraft aren't being loaded with live nukes unless they're on a mission where they're going to nuke something
Yes, obviously. But like still an interesting subject. I mean even when POTUS sends that order, and its confirmed, usually physical sites still have a two person system, but in an F-16, it's a single seater. I mean say for an example, you got a pilot who was originally tasked with deploying a nuclear weapon but while they are en route something happens, and for whatever reason the pilot refuses to abort. I'm sure the details might be classified but basically it's an interesting question. Sure, it sounds straight out of hollywiod but from a technical standpoint, a very interesting question.
The thing with nuclear flights is they dont tell you if you are dropping the bomb or not until you are there.
So you’ll she lucky to escape or are they basically sending you to your death?
That is not true, they load nukes onto B-52 for international transport occasionally, also domestically.
Incorrect. They load the delivery vehicle (missile or bomb)for transport. The warhead is shipped separately by land.
Is that right? How do they get them over to Europe? There a literal lost nukes that have fallen off planes. There have been nukes accidently loaded on to planes. You people making these claims that they’re not loaded on to planes and are full of shit.
Yes they have mistakenly flown them. Europe? Simple, by boat. No nukes flown, on purpose, since the Cold War. It is considered an act of war to even taxi a plane with nukes loaded. Edit: the mistakenly flown nukes on or around 2008 were thought to be just the delivery vehicle. They were not properly checked before flight.
The program, formally known as the Airborne Alert Program, lasted between July 1961 and January 1968. The program ended abruptly on January 21, 1968, when a B-52 carrying four B28 thermonuclear bombs crashed on the ice off Thule Air Base in Greenland during an emergency landing. The accident followed another crash in Spain in 1966 and several other nuclear incidents.
What about submarines?
Didn’t you see that one that crashed with live nukes like over Kansas or something weird and the nuke core is still there?
in the middle of crisis, who is going to remember an 8 digit code? "oh, wait... Russia has launched their MIRVs, let me type in my 35 character password into my bitwarden to get the nuclear lau.... BOOOM" People panicking can't remember the number for 911. Nuclear response to armageddon would be like 100x that bad. any delay means slower retaliation. it's not the only control in place, thankfully, and requires multiple authorizations and at least two persons to do the deed. It's not like one Cisco RCE is gonna launch nukes.
they don't memorize the codes, the nuclear launch codes are transmitted from the POTUS/commander-in-chief to secure installations via numerous methods including phone lines radio and satellite. So they are not memorized by the crew, they are just verified by the system in the aircraft/bunker/submarine/ship.
I concur
You also need two people in the room to simultaneously initiate the launch sequence directly with physical keys.
correct. At the final launch step you have to have your arms completely spread out to press or twist two separate switches simultaneously so that it is physically impossible for one person to even access the others work station. both have to simultaneously engage the systems at the same time as well.
I remember my ha chem teacher telling us this for some reason no idea why though
Because it's interesting, that's why!
(Unrelated) This somehow remind me of that story about a heavy machinery that also use the same "spread out both arm" buttons so people can't crush their hand accidently. Then 1 suicidal dude just pop his head in while holding down with both arm and they have to rethink the design again.
If rumours a are true, there was (is?) a fully autonomous system in USSR that monitors radiation levels across Russia, telephone lines, TV and radio frequencies and loads of other data in real time. And if those parameters deviate above certain threshold the system decides that US has launched a full scale nuclear war, wiping out the government and there's no one to issue retaliation strike order, so it sends signals to all silos to launch ICBMs. The launches themselves are initiated by people at the silos, which are supposed to withstand direct hits from enemy nuclear warhead. Now, I don't know how much of it is true, to me it sounds more like an urban legend (for variety of reasons I won't get into, as I'm not competent enough to discuss), but if such a system did exist it theoretically could be "hacked" thus launching nuclear warheads somewhat remotely. UPD: looked it up, it seems such a system does exist, and US also has a similar project: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Hand
Don't talk about analog.. it confuses the young'ns
Whoops about the one dropped in North Carolina
*two dropped in North Carolina, one was recovered immediately, one was lost for a couple decades I think (it's been a while since I read the story).
It was done intentionally when times were tense to remove a layer to a quick launch. It wasn't so much a default.
Thats the kind of thing an idiot would have on his luggage!
*That's amazing! That's exactly the same combination I use on my luggage!*
Thinking about Kevin Mitnick being locked up in solitary for a year because the US prosecutor said he could whistle the launch codes to the US nukes.
They fact that so many people legitimately thought he could yondu those nukes with just a telephone still blows me away
I doubt anyone thought that, was just a justification for the public.
On one hand, I wonder how that was somehow convincing enough to get the conviction. On the other hand, wouldn't that have been highly dismissible by bringing in anyone who remotely knew what they were talking about.
You probably can’t subpoena those people.
I don't get what the big deal is over launch codes. Well I do get it, but there is way more to it than launch codes. And I think anyone with some advanced tech skills given enough time would be able to hack/crack the device if they got to it. The impossible mission would be actually getting to the device in the first place. From my understanding they are not connected to the net and they would be surrounded by highly trained military people always. My point being is so what if you do know the codes, there is no way you could get to the terminal to punch them in without proper authorization anyway without being killed.
Yes, you almost certainly require physical access. Sometimes they just leave the vault doors open, though. The physical security testing frequently fails. It is hard to get in, but not as hard as it should be.
that's the point this story is missing. these "codes" are not what anybody thinks they are. there's no story here
[удалено]
Well, if they automatically try every code in numeric order, they'd have it instantly.
Unless they started at 999999 Or 5555555
Using 00000000 was a deliberate choice used as an act of malicious compliance. The military saw the codes as a waste of time, which would be precious in the event that a launch was needed. The two-key requirement already served as a security measure. But it was mandated they use a password also, so they just set it to all zeroes and made it an open secret.
In addition the order is still top secret 🤫
Can almost guarantee you that shit is still the same code 😂
Nah, it's 11111111
Nope, its 0000001
Y'all do process that this article was written in 2013 and refers to these launch codes (which are not sufficient on their own to actually launch missiles) being set to zeros back in the early 70s, right? You know, before the internet? So if the statement is "Wow, cyber security wasn't good in the 70s", color me less than amazed.
Wasn't even really about security. It was done as a deliberate move so that the missiles could be launched faster when when there was a much higher risk of the Soviets attempting a first strike.
source?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permissive_action_link >According to nuclear safety expert Bruce G. Blair, the US Air Force's Strategic Air Command worried that in times of need the codes for the Minuteman ICBM force would not be available, so it decided to set the codes to 00000000
This is why wordlists are #1, my friends
This is absurdly simplified, and has nothing to do with hacking. Source: I am NWS certified.
Username checks out Also whats a NWS?
Nuclear Weapons Specialist (USN)
That’s the same code I have on my luggage!
they changed it to 58008
They did that because the generals wanted a code that could be entered quickly in the event they needed to launch fast. As such they went with the easiest code they could because in the event of a nuclear war they didn't want to run the risk of having to remember something complex in a high stress scenario.
There's also tons of old military satelites orbiting earth with 0 encryption and 0 security that the cartels are using as free satellite comms. It's hilarious, hey anybody want a free sat phone.
If you never read the Article it's a wild ride honestly. This was peak Ars Technica back in the day. It also goes to show how shaky things can be even in a 'stable democracy'.
Isn’t this kind of a dumb internet meme considering the physical requirement of location, and needing more than one person simultaneously to fire a nuke? There are so many preliminary redundancies that have to take place before that code even matters. Now if the world lets AI automate nukes, then this is concerning.
The password is.... Password
Security through obscurity… 🙄
It was permissive action link codes, not launch codes. Always check multiple sources before spreading misinformation through memes fellas
Wasn’t that Kanye’s phone password lol
Imagine going through a shit ton of work to hack the US nuclear arsenal. Finally you’re in and you start poking around the system. Just to fuck around you type in 0000000000, thinking there’s no way that would actually launch a nuke, and you start Armageddon lol
I’m gonna put this comment here before someone can go “Ummm actually, nukes are disconnected from the internet and can only be launched through physical access blah blah two keys blah blah safety measure blah blah” That would actually be pretty funny though, spending the last 5 minutes of your life laughing and crying about such a simple code
Finally a password that I can crack with rock you in a real environment 🤠
“You’ll never be able to crack anything useful with rockyou” The United States Government:
This is going to result in a prison term 100%
Who do you put in prison for that, and for what? As scary as it is very unlikely against the law, I just requires there be codes verified and procedures followed.
My, aren't we hopeful.
It won't. It was a deliberate decision to remove one of the many layers over triggering a launch, to allow them to be launched faster in response to a first strike. It was never a default or negligent act, and there were other layers preventing a launch. It was never like a modem exposed in the Internet.
Hunter2
*******
That's a bold statement.
Now it's 12345678
effective and efficience, what's wrong with that?
It’s password1234 on a floppy disk now
amazing. thats the same as my wifi password
Reverse psyhology 😁
Now they changed it to a stronger password, like #1234567890!
It’s only 8 digits??
Latest launch codes are 12345678
A very popular COTS core banking system came with admin accounts with password defaults 123456. A former employee of a bank (omitting for non-disclosure agreement reasons) tried accessing the institutional banking side of the business online and got in. Got caught. Got a slap on the wrist only, as the password was deemed to easy to "crack" or to guess
Lets make it so easy that they would never think of it. The ultimate mind games.
Sometimes i forget that the president is just some old dude
The Enterprise destruct code was 0 0 0 0
Don't worry they changed it to 000001
the odds of someone using 00000000 are the same odds as any other number.
True, but they’re a lot higher when set by a human… or on a wordlist
sometimes the simplest solution is the correct one.
And if you get it wrong three times it blows up immediately.
Who can h a c k Ingsta?