The RISKS Digest
Volume 3 Issue 67

Thursday, 25th September 1986

Forum on Risks to the Public in Computers and Related Systems

ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy, Peter G. Neumann, moderator

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Contents

Old GAO Report on Medical Device Software
Chuck Youman
Re: Stanford breakin, RISKS-3.62 DIGEST
Darrel VanBuer
Re: Passwords and the Stanford break-in (RISKS-3.61)
Dave Sherman
Re: role of simulation - combat simulation for sale
Jon Jacky
MIT Symposium on economic impact of military spending
Richard Cowan
"Friendly" missiles and computer error — more on the Exocet
Rob MacLachlan
Info on RISKS (comp.risks)

Old GAO Report on Medical Device Software

Chuck Youman <m14817@mitre.ARPA>
Thu, 25 Sep 86 13:49:08 -0500
I recently ran across an old report (Aug. 5, 1981) from the U.S. General
Accounting Office (GAO) on the subject "Software Used in Medical Devices
Needs Better Controls To Avoid Compromising Patient Safety (AFMD-81-95).
I don't recall seeing it mentioned in this forum or in SEN.  The 
report is 8 pages and can be ordered from the GAO at P.O. Box 6015,
Gaithersburg, MD 20877.

To briefly summarize the report, they identified 78 cases involving
unreliable computerized medical devices that occurred from June 1976 to
August 1979.  They state that the believe this is only a small fraction of
the total cases that occurred.  They examined 24 of the cases and found 13
of them had software problems.  In their report they give two examples:  a
blood gas analyzer and a computerized electrocardiogram interpretation
software package.

They concluded:

Advances in computer technology have brought about far more reliable 
hardware.  However, software has been and remains a problem area, regardless
of whether it is used in medical or business applications.  We believe the
use of software in medical devices is emerging as a troublesome area and
requires the attention of the Bureau [i.e., the FDA].

The use of performance standards, as authorized by the Medical Device
Amendments of 1976, is a possible mechanism to help control the performance
of software in computerized medical devices.  Unfortunately, the time-
consuming process for developing standards together with the large number
of standards to be developed makes it very unlikely that any standards will
be available soon.  This, coupled with the relatively fast pace at which
computer technology changes, makes it unlikely that the standards when 
developed will be timely enough to validate software in medical devices.
Therefore, we believe the Bureau needs to explore other alternatives for
validating and certifying that the software in medical devices works as
expected.

Charles Youman (youman@mitre.arpa)


Re: Stanford breakin, RISKS-3.62 DIGEST

Darrel VanBuer <hplabs!sdcrdcf!darrelj@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Wed, 24 Sep 86 09:35:37 pdt
I think many of the respondents misunderstand what went wrong: there was no
failure in the 4.2 trusted networking code.  It correctly communicated the
message that "someone logged in as X at Y wants to run program Z at W".  The
failure of security was that
  1)  the "someone" was not in fact X because of some failure of security
      (e.g. poor password).
  2)  the real X who had legitimate access on W had previously created a file
      under some user id at W saying X at Y is an OK user.
  3)  the real X was lazy about withdrawing remote privileges (not essential,
      but widens the window of opportunity.

There's a tough tradeoff between user convenience in a networked environment
and security.  Having to enter a password for every remote command is too
arduous for frequent use.  Interlisp-D has an interesting approach:
  1.  Try a generic userid and password.
  2.  Try a host-specific userid and password.
In either case, if it does not have these items in its cache, it prompts the
user.  The cache is cleared on logout and at certain other times which
suggest the user has gone away (e.g. 20 minutes without activity).
Passwords are never stored in long term or publically accessible locations.
It's also less convenient than 4.2 since you need to resupply IDs after
every cache flush.  It also has the opening for lazy users to use the same
ID and password at every host so that the generic entry is enough.

Darrel J. Van Buer, PhD, System Development Corp., 2525 Colorado Ave
Santa Monica, CA 90406, (213)820-4111 x5449
...{allegra,burdvax,cbosgd,hplabs,ihnp4,orstcs,sdcsvax,ucla-cs,akgua}
                                                            !sdcrdcf!darrelj
VANBUER@USC-ECL.ARPA


Re: Passwords and the Stanford break-in (RISKS-3.61)

<mnetor!lsuc!dave@seismo.CSS.GOV>
Thu, 25 Sep 86 12:48:55 edt
There's another risk which isn't related to the problems of the networking
code which Brian Reid described. Most users will have the same password on
all machines. So where the intruder becomes root on one machine, he need
merely modify login to store passwords for him, and will very quickly amass
a collection of login-password combinations which have a very high
probability of working all over the network.

I'm not sure what the solution is to this one, except, as has been pointed
out, to be aware that the network is as vulnerable as its weakest link.
Sure, people should use different passwords, but the burden of remembering
passwords for many different machines can become onerous. Perhaps building a
version of the machine name into the password can help mnemonically - i.e.
use the same password with a different final letter indicating which machine
it is.

I use two passwords for the several accounts I have: one for the machines
under my control and one for guest accounts on other organizations' systems.
That way no-one who collects passwords on someone else's system will be able
to use them to break into Law Society machines.

Dave Sherman, The Law Society of Upper Canada, Toronto
dave@lsuc.UUCP
{ ihnp4!utzoo  seismo!mnetor  utai  hcr  decvax!utcsri  } !lsuc!dave

    [Mnemonics with one-letter differences are clearly easy to break.
     Also, it does not really matter how many passwords you have if 
     they are stored somewhere for automatic remote access...  The
     more realistic point is that network security is an intrinsically 
     nontrivial problem.  PGN]


Re: role of simulation - combat simulation for sale

Jon Jacky <jon@june.cs.washington.edu>
Thu, 25 Sep 86 17:10:09 PDT
I came across the following advertisement in AVIATION WEEK AND SPACE TECHNOLOGY,
June 16, 1986, p. 87:

SURVIVE TOMORROW'S THREAT - <illegible> Equipment and Tactics Against Current
    and Future Threats

FSI's dynamic scenario software programs such as "War Over Land," "AirLand
Battle," and "Helicopter Combat" provide realistic simulation of a combat
environment.  These programs use validated threat data to evaluate the 
effectiveness of individual weapons or an integrated weapons system.  The 
easy-to-utilize programs are already in use by the Army, Navy, Air Force, and
many prime defense contractors.  Evaluate your system on a DoD-accepted model.
For more information, contact ... ( name, address, contact person).

(end of excerpt from ad)

The ad doesn't really say how you run this simulation, but kind of implies 
you can actually test real electronic warfare equipment with it.  Needless to
say, an interesting issue is, how comprehensive or realistic is this "validated
(by whom? how?) threat data?"  I checked the bingo card with some interest.
And this ad is just one example of the genre - p. 92 of the same issue 
advertises a product called "SCRAMBLE! Full mission simulators," showing 
several high-resolution out-the-window flight simulator displays of aerial
combat.

-Jonathan Jacky, University of Washington


MIT Symposium on economic impact of military spending

Richard A. Cowan <COWAN@XX.LCS.MIT.EDU>
Thu 25 Sep 86 17:42:50-EDT
[The following seminar, sponsored by MIT, may be of interest to RISKS Readers.]

     November Symposium: "What are the effects of military spending?"
                MIT Technology and Culture Seminar
                   Saturday, November 1, 1986
                    9am-3pm, MIT Room 26-100
Topics:

Bernard O'Keefe
  --Chairman of the Executive Committee, EG&G, Inc.
"Are we focusing on the military confrontation with the USSR
 while ignoring the trade war with the Japanese?"

Seymour Melman, 
  --Professor of Industrial Engineering, Columbia University
"Do present rates of military spending make capital effectively
 available for civilian industry?"

Alice Tepper-Martin,
  --Executive Director, Council on Economic Priorities
"If military spending is "only" about six or seven percent of the
 GNP, why worry?"

Frederick Salvucci
  --Secretary of Transportation and Construction for Massachusetts
"Where will the funds for our national infrastructure come from?"

Barry Bluestone
  --Professor of Economics, Boston University
"The arms race and unemployment."

John Kenneth Galbraith
  --Professor of Economics, Harvard University
"Does the military-industrial complex really exist, and what is its impact?"


"Friendly" missiles and computer error — more on the Exocet

Rob MacLachlan <RAM@C.CS.CMU.EDU>
Thu, 25 Sep 1986 21:23 EDT
       
   [We have been around on this case in the past, with the "friendly" theory
    having been officially denied. This is the current item in my summary list:
       !!$ Sheffield sunk during Falklands war, 20 killed.  Call to London
           jammed antimissile defenses.  Exocet on same frequency.  
           [AP 16 May 86](SEN 11 3)                 
    However, there is enough new material in this message to go at it once
    again!  But, please reread RISKS-2.53 before responding to this.  PGN]

    I recently read a book about electronic warfare which had some
things to say about the Falklands war incident of the sinking of the
Sheffield by an Exocet missile.  This has been attributed to a
"computer error" on the part of a computer which "thought the missile
was friendly."  My conclusions are that:
 1] Although a system involving a computer didn't do what what one
    might like it to do, I don't think that the failure can reasonably
    be called a "computer error".
 2] If the system had functioned in an ideal fashion, it would
    probably have had no effect on the outcome.

The chronology is roughly as follows:

The Sheffield was one of several ships on picket duty, preventing
anyone from sneaking up on the fleet.  It had all transmitters
(including radar) off because it was communicating with a satellite.

Two Argentinan planes were detected by another ship's radar.  They
first appeared a few miles out because they had previously been flying
too low to be detected.  The planes briefly activated their radars,
then turned around and went home.

Two minutes later a lookout on the Sheffield saw the missile's flare
approaching.  Four seconds later, the missile hit.  The ship eventually
sank, since salvage efforts were hindered by uncontrollable fires.

What actually happened is that the planes popped up so that the could
acquire targets on their radars, then launched Exocet missiles and
left.  (The Exocet is an example of a "Fire and Forget" weapon.  Moral
or not, they work.)  The British didn't recognize that they had been
attacked, since they believed that the Argentinans didn't know how to
use their Exocet missiles.

It is irrelevent that the Sheffield had its radar off, since the
missile skims just above the water, making it virtually undetectable
by radar.  For most of the flight, it proceeds by internal guidance,
emitting no telltale radar signals.  About 20 seconds before the end
of the flight, it turns on a terminal homing radar which guides it
directly to the target.  The Sheffield was equipped with an ESM
receiver, whose main purpose is to detect hostile radar transmissions.

The ESM receiver can be preset to sound an alarm when any of a small
number of characteristic radar signals are received.  Evidently the
Exocet homing radar was not among these presets, since there would
have been a warning 20 sec before impact.  In any case, the ESM
receiver didn't "think the missile was friendly", it just hadn't been
told it was hostile.  It should be noted that British ships which were
actually present in the Falklands were equipped with a shipboard
version of the Exocet.

If the failure was as deduced above, then the ESM receiver behaved
exactly as designed.  It is also hard to conceive of a design change
which would have changed the outcome.  The ESM receiver had no range
information, and thus was incapable of concluding "anything coming
toward me is hostile", even supposing the probably rather feeble
computer in the ESM receiver were cable of such intelligence.

In any case, it is basically irrelevant that the ESM receiver didn't
do what it might have done, since by 20 seconds before impact it was
too late.  The Sheffield had no "active kill" capability effective
against a missile.  Its anti-aircraft guns were incapable of shooting
down a tiny target skimming the water at near the speed of sound.

It is also poossible to cause a missile to miss by jamming its radar,
but the Sheffield's jamming equipment was old and oriented toward
jamming russian radars, rather than smart western radars which
wheren't even designed when the Sheffield was built.  The Exocet has a
large bag of tricks for defeating jammers, such as homing in on the
jamming signal.

In fact, the only effective defense against the Exocet which was
available was chaff: a rocket dispersed cloud of metalized plastic
threads which confuses radars.  To be effective, chaff must be
dispersed as soon as possible, preferably before the attack starts.
After the Sheffield, the British were familiar with the Argentinan
attack tactics, and could launch chaff as soon as they detected the
aircraft on their radars.  This defense was mostly effective.

Ultimately the only significant mistake was the belief that the
Argentinans wouldn't use Exocet missiles.  If this possibility was
seriously analysed, then the original attack might have been
recognized.  The British were wrong, and ended up learning the hard
way.  Surprise conclusion: mistakes can be deadly; mistakes in war are
usually deadly.

I think that the most significant "risk" revealed by this event is
tendency to attribute the failure of any system which includes a
computer (such as the British Navy) to "computer error".

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