News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Keep the nuclear launch codes in an innocent volunteer's chest-cavity (2015). Parent comment

Re:Keep the nuclear launch codes in an innocent volunteer's ... by stopping on Wednesday October 28, 2020 @05:00AM (#24916700)
This is essentially false. There are several redundant safety and security mechanisms protecting nuclear weapons, one of which is the Permissive Action Link (essentially a combination lock on the warhead). This is the component in question which once had the alleged code of 00000000: https://web.archive.org/web/20120511191600/http://www.cdi.or...

The "nuclear football" is a completely separate authentication mechanism for verifying a presidential order, and as far as we know uses codes that rotate on a daily basis.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Keep the nuclear launch codes in an innocent volunteer's ... by ncmncm on Wednesday October 28, 2020 @05:07AM (#24916739)
The key words there are "as far as we know". Fool me once...
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Keep the nuclear launch codes in an innocent volunteer's ... by stopping on Wednesday October 28, 2020 @05:09AM (#24916747)
As far as we know, the earth is a globe. What point are you trying to make?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Keep the nuclear launch codes in an innocent volunteer's ... by TeMPOraL on Wednesday October 28, 2020 @05:46AM (#24916966)
That if the government is caught lying about how secure one part of the lock to the Armageddon button is, you have no reason to believe they aren't lying about the other part too. Particularly, if there's a strong incentive for the system to not be secure - which there is, namely, response time.
[ Parent | on HN ]