Nuclear Launch Code at US Silos Was 00000000

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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For the better part of 20 years, all of the nuclear missiles in silos all over the US had their launch codes set to a combination of eight zeros. Forget WOPR trying to crack the launch codes in the movie War Games, all it would take is for someone to lean on the zero button for a second or two and World War 3 would have been upon us. :eek:

Beyond foreign seizure, there was also simply the problem that many U.S. commanders had the ability to launch nukes under their control at any time. Just one commanding officer who wasn't quite right in the head and World War III begins
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Coulda been worse...they could've used something really obvious like 12345678
 
Well just imagine if the US missile silos had Captchas for safety interlocks?
 
I was like "oh snap" at first, then I saw it was from Gizmodo and then I was all "oh" and then all was ignored.
 
what the article forgot to mention was the fact that the password was encrypted. ROT26 may be a bit dated, but better than nothing.
 
A password so stupidly simple and arrogant that I bet it fooled the Russians into naively believing we were not that stupid so they never found out.
 
It may have been eight zeros, but it's still pretty secure as it matters what order you input the zeros. ;)
 
Don't lie! It was "operator...operator...operator...operator...operator...operator...operator...operator".
 
It always baffles me at the people on here who think that 1) the government does things right, 2) the government does things in our interests, 3) the government is the best at doing things.

They're the worst at doing everything, they never do anything right, and they do things the worst ways. This comes as no surprise. They couldn't even launch a simple website on a $600MM budget. Three IT pros with no budget completed their project for them in 3 days.
 
quake 3 used to accept all 7s or all 2s for the cd key as scary as it is for a nuke to have all 00000000 for launch code does that code also arm the war head? Besides everyone is so afraid of the nuke that none were launched outside the big two and several tests by numerous countries...

Honestly i think we should ban the detonation of nuclear weapons. I dont care if you want to keep them but in atmosphere detonation needs to stop there is already too much radiation we are exposed to everyday...
 
shade91 said:
It always baffles me at the people on here who think that 1) the government does things right, 2) the government does things in our interests, 3) the government is the best at doing things.

They're the worst at doing everything, they never do anything right, and they do things the worst ways. This comes as no surprise. They couldn't even launch a simple website on a $600MM budget. Three IT pros with no budget completed their project for them in 3 days.
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Yes but that's kind of thing we get when people are stupid enough to elect politicians that say government sucks and can't do anything right... I mean, seriously, you think anybody running on that kind of platform has any interest in changing that, or just trying to do whatever they can to prove that point?

Besides this was the military, and the odd thing about it is, most people complaining about inefficient government seem to think no amount of money we pump into the military is enough money.

As for the website, the $600 million figure wasn't for the ACA website, it was the total amount the company that was contracted for, to create and maintain all government websites, since early in the Bush Administration.

It also kind of baffles me that the government contracts out to a private corporation to do something, and when they screw it up, the corporation isn't at fault--- it's the government! Maybe they should just fire that company and get one that cares.

Of course nothing will change as long as corporations rip off the government (ie. us, the taxpayers) and completely get away with it, with our blessings. That just makes them want to do it again and laugh at us!

It's kind of ironic that, when the government contracts out to a private corporation to do something, and they screw it up royally, that we'll say stuff like "government can't do it right, we should let private corporations do it!" I bet that just makes them LOL all the way to the bank. :D
 
Lunas said:
quake 3 used to accept all 7s or all 2s for the cd key as scary as it is for a nuke to have all 00000000 for launch code does that code also arm the war head? Besides everyone is so afraid of the nuke that none were launched outside the big two and several tests by numerous countries...

Honestly i think we should ban the detonation of nuclear weapons. I dont care if you want to keep them but in atmosphere detonation needs to stop there is already too much radiation we are exposed to everyday...
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Yeah that could be it... Probably had to arm them to launch, and they had actual codes for that... They could have figured that if they were in a situation where they had to put in the codes to arm the missiles, what's the point of having to go through the same procedure to launch them.. especially when they always talked about having to make the decision and launch within minutes of detecting incoming missiles that they thought were coming any day.
 
lol, an Atari 2600 could brute force that password in one try! :D
 
As I heard the story: the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (basically, head of the US military) was dead set against any sort of code lock; the Air Force basically figured that if the missiles were ever needed, they didn't want to run around looking for codes.

The Armed Forces Oversight Committee, on the other hand, were terrified of the idea of some military yahoo unilaterally deciding to "make them Commies glow in the dark". They absolutely insisted on coded locks on every warhead.

Thus, the '00000000' - the Chairman could go back to his civilian bosses and say that, yes, every nuke has a lock on it :D without ever having to mention that it was a lock any blind pygmy could defeat :( - and it stayed that way for almost 20 years.
 
Is there a timeout to wait after entering the code (say like 5 seconds) so that if you enter too many zeros, it wont trigger?
If not, it does defy belief.

I can imagine modern day yahoos thinking of tons of simple codes so they can have a go, because what will have changed?
 
When I see that 00000000 all I think of is this:

SpaceballsLuggage.jpeg
 
i mean when you think about it 8 zeros is just as secure as any other 8 number code.
 
Don't want to be that guy that needs to be emergency launch and can't tell if it's a O or a 0.
 
I think it's funny i just read that chapter in the book i'm reading (and which is quoted in the article) yesterday morning.
 
Lunas said:
Honestly i think we should ban the detonation of nuclear weapons. I dont care if you want to keep them but in atmosphere detonation needs to stop there is already too much radiation we are exposed to everyday...
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There hasn't been an atmospheric nuclear weapons test since 1980.
 
Fucking amazing, we finally found somebody more stupid than President Skroob, and it was in the US government
 
launching an ICBM is like launching a rocket by NASA. You dont just push a red button and presto the rest is automated. No single person could ever initiate WWIII
 
"I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids." -- General Jack D. Ripper
 
McFry said:
launching an ICBM is like launching a rocket by NASA. You dont just push a red button and presto the rest is automated. No single person could ever initiate WWIII
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That's what they want you to believe :eek:
 
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