{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.026030368763557483, 'fraction_numerical': 0.005784526391901663, 'mean_word_length': 4.864406779661017, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Exploiting the Client Vulnerabilities in Internet E-voting Systems: Hacking Helios 2.0 as an Example

Helios is a web-based open-audit voting system designed using state of the art web technologies and advanced cryptographic techniques to provide integrity of ballots and voter secrecy in an insecure Internet environment. In this paper, we demonstrate a simple attack against Helios 2.0 that takes advantage of the fact that every candidate in Helios can provide a URL referring to his/her candidacy statement. A malicious candidate, who wishes to win a Helios-managed election, uploads a specially crafted PDF file containing a candidacy statement to his/her website. The attack is then triggered against each voter who is using a vulnerable machine. The security of the machine is undermined, e.g., when the voter visits the attacker's webpage. In essence, we exploit Adobe Acrobat/Reader's vulnerabilities to install a malicious browser extension on the voters' machines. Such an extension provides an opportunity for an attacker which may fool the voter (using Social Engineering) into accepting a hacked ballot. Due to our attack Helios 2.0 was upgraded to Helios 3.0. We discuss generalizations and the impact of the latest upgrade of Helios on security. We also discuss defences against this attack, generalizations and the impact of the latest upgrade of Helios on security.