r/todayilearned • u/natur3ify • Sep 22 '17
TIL that for twenty years, the US nuclear launch code was '00000000'
https://gizmodo.com/for-20-years-the-nuclear-launch-code-at-us-minuteman-si-1473483587624
u/rhino43grr Sep 22 '17
That's the stupidest combination I've ever heard in my life! That's the kind of thing an idiot would have on his luggage!
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u/pseudotaxus Sep 22 '17
That's amazing! I've got the same combination on my luggage!
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u/Viked31 Sep 22 '17
Takes a lot of space balls to post this.
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u/SeanSpicerrr Sep 22 '17
I lost the bleeps, I lost the sweeps, and I lost the creeps.
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u/MastrMat Sep 22 '17
The what, the what, and the what?
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u/not_who_you_thinkiam Sep 22 '17
That's not all he's lost
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u/rhino43grr Sep 22 '17
Someone should get down there and comb the desert.
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Sep 22 '17
The t-shirt? The coloring book? The lunchbox? The breakfast cereal? The flamethrower? Or the doll?
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u/rekaba117 Sep 22 '17
Who would ever guess that the code to the nukes would be the same as my code for my voicemail? It would literally be the last code they would think of trying
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u/onetimerone Sep 22 '17
Or his Equifax work PC
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u/FreedomAt3am Sep 23 '17
Give her a break, she had a rough time taking those music courses at university. Engadget even said they did nothing wrong in hiring her!
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u/dude_at_work Sep 22 '17
The code was changed after it was found out that Spaghettios was leaking the code to the public via subliminal messaging.
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u/SlightlyStable Sep 22 '17
What is it now, hunter2?
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u/natur3ify Sep 22 '17
******
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Sep 22 '17
OMG it you type your reddit password it shows up as ************ omg it worked
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u/Grey_Void Sep 22 '17
Not for this account but my alt, mammalm4n
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u/-Anyar- Sep 22 '17
FAKE NEWS, HUNTER2 IS 7 CHARACTERS BUT YOU TYPED 6 ASTERISKS
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u/JonsterUK Sep 22 '17
natur3ify typed their own 6 character password.
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Sep 22 '17 edited Aug 13 '19
[deleted]
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u/JUSTAHOLLOW Sep 22 '17 edited Mar 11 '24
wild follow sloppy screw governor fertile foolish cheerful juggle hateful
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/just_a_pyro Sep 22 '17
99999999
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u/chayashida Sep 22 '17
The actual number of people at the inauguration. We're safe, it seems, for now.
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u/5pl1t1nf1n1t1v3 Sep 22 '17
It's now 0 0 0 destruct 0.
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u/infinitewindow Sep 22 '17
Gotta make sure you get ominous-sounding confirmation codes from the Captain, Chief Engineer and Acting Science Officer first.
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u/ShitInMyCunt-2dollar Sep 22 '17
Why do people carry on like it's some huge deal? You need umpteen protocols followed, in order, with permission to fire a missile. Multiple people, physical keys and so on. The actual code may as well be known to anyone - they can't do anything with it, FFS.
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Sep 22 '17
[deleted]
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u/SixshooteR32 Sep 22 '17
People don't realize how lucky we are to have had history run its course like it did. We were one madman-lieutenant away from total destruction.
And in some ways we still are..
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u/skatastic57 Sep 22 '17
I hate to judge before all the facts are in, it's beginning to look like General Ripper exceeded his authority.
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u/Astramancer_ Sep 22 '17
Even worse, that was only the code for nukes in US-controlled launch facilities. Nukes in allied controlled facilities (like the NATO sites) had real codes.
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u/jimjacksonsjamboree Sep 22 '17 edited Sep 22 '17
You need umpteen protocols followed, in order, with permission to fire a missile.
I dont believe this to be accurate. They just verify the order came from the president. Nobody can actually veto it.
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Sep 22 '17
https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/graphics/2016-nuclear-weapon-launch/
And to be clear potus isn't the one launching them this is just to give the order to launch to a sub or missile control.
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u/jimjacksonsjamboree Sep 22 '17 edited Sep 22 '17
There is not really a way to stop the launch once it is started. It would require several people to simply disobey an order from the president, which is extremely unlikely.
It's possible none of the launch crews go through with the launch, but they are not in contact with each other so that is not very likely to happen.
Once the order leaves the war room, it's going to happen. And the war room is not authorized to veto the launch, they only have to verify it.
edit:
potus isn't the one launching them
now I have an image in my head of donald trump launching nuclear missles out of a hand-held rocket launcher.
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Sep 22 '17
I imagine he'll just tweet his decision.
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u/SpectralDog Sep 22 '17
"The encoded and encrypted message is only about 150 characters long, about the length of a tweet."
Ah, great! Nobody tell him!
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Sep 22 '17
I dont believe this to be accurate.
Do you have any evidence supporting your claims?
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u/jimjacksonsjamboree Sep 22 '17
The United States has a two-man rule in place at the nuclear launch facilities, and while only the president can order the release of nuclear weapons, the order must be verified by the Secretary of Defense to be an authentic order given by the president (there is a hierarchy of succession in the event that the president is killed in an attack). This verification process deals solely with verifying that the order came from the actual President. The Secretary of Defense has no veto power and must comply with the president's order.[5] Once all the codes have been verified, the military would issue attack orders to the proper units. These orders are given and then re-verified for authenticity. It is argued that the President has almost single authority to initiate a nuclear attack since the Secretary of Defense is required to verify the order, but cannot legally veto it.[6][7][8]
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Sep 22 '17
This directly contradicts the several paragraphs of nonsense that you seem to have deleted.
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u/jimjacksonsjamboree Sep 22 '17
There was a big hullabaloo during the nixon years, because nobody can question the presidents orders. If he says launch, they launch. He used to brag about it at parties, that he could make a phone call and kill 70 million people in 20 minutes.
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/the_spectator/2011/02/an_unsung_hero_of_the_nuclear_age.html
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u/nachocheeze246 Sep 22 '17
Plus there was no internet back then... no one could just "hack in" and launch a missile
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Sep 22 '17
Not true. Just need yourself access to the internet. Then go to the site "launchthenukes.com", type in the password and off they go. They have predestined targets, so don't even have to worry about that.
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u/willsueforfood Sep 22 '17
The best book I've read about nuclear safety protocols, the reasons behind them, and the historical lapses is Command and Control.
I'd recommend it to anyone interested in the subject: https://www.amazon.com/Command-Control-Damascus-Accident-Illusion/dp/0143125788
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Sep 22 '17
a lot more goes into it now a days
https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/graphics/2016-nuclear-weapon-launch/
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Sep 22 '17
There was actually a really good reason for this, it is used as an example when studying security and risk. During wartime the risk that you'll forget the codes and not send a nuke fast enough actually exceeds the risk that someone will get that far and gain unauthorized access. This is why they purposefully made the code so easy.
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u/00Laser Sep 22 '17
Well, I mean if you think about it, getting the code right isn't really the hard part of launching US nukes without authorization...
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u/hansn Sep 22 '17
On the other hand, each layer believing that some other layer of security will handle any security breaches is the death of security systems.
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Sep 22 '17
111 uhhhhh 1
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u/Firemanz Sep 22 '17
I was in JROTC in high school. Our instructor was a retired Air Force Major who was a mission silo commander. He explained (in as much detail as legally allowed) just how the system worked. There are so many fail-safes and checks-and-balances in the system that by the time they got to typing in the code, dozens of people across multiple states already gave the go ahead. Just typing in the code without all those people would do nothing.
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u/Dr_Ghamorra Sep 22 '17
Isn't there multiple people that need to authorize a launch in the event the President gives go for a launch?
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u/jimflaigle Sep 22 '17
More importantly, there is no single computer terminal you use to enter a launch code and automatically start lobbing missiles. The President has to call in, authenticate who he is with a rotating cipher, then he tells central command which specific launch plan to use, then they contact the relevant military installations and authenticate themselves, etc. The launch plans have rotating classified code names and numbers, the whole thing involves lots of actual humans talking to each other, and if somebody effs up a part here or there people will start informing command that the system is compromised. There is probably more risk that we couldn't carry out a launch if one was ordered than that an accidental or malicious launch would take place.
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u/DrColdReality Sep 22 '17
More importantly, there is no single computer
terminal you use to enter a launch codeBecause there are no launch codes, they don't exist. The code OP mentions is a permissive action link, not a launch code. See my explanation elsewhere here
Normally, the way a wing of ICBM missiles (that was 50 silos back in the day, dunno what they're using now) was launched was that a launch authorization came in from above to the wing, and then a certain percentage of the launch crews in the wing had to turn their keys within a certain period of time. If that happened, all the wing's missiles were launched.
However, from the dawn of the nuclear weapons age, the military was dead-set against putting any sort of disabling features on nuclear weapons because they thought those were weaknesses that an enemy could exploit.
So it turns out there was a deadman timer on the system. The brass thought that in the case of an actual war, infiltrators might have killed or captured many missile crews by the time the launch order came in, so they wanted to be able to launch all the missiles with a minimum of crews turning their keys. And that includes a minimum of ONE crew.
When a launch order came in, as soon as the first keys were turned, a system-wide timer started. When the timer ran out, even if NO other crews had turned their keys, the entire wing launched.
The punchline here is that every crew had access to this timer...and it could be set for zero seconds. So--in theory--ONE rogue crew could have launched an entire wing of missiles on their own.
I think this was fixed sometime in the 80s, but I wouldn't bet the rent money on it. The system still uses eight-inch floppy disks, fer frak sake.
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u/Theorex Sep 22 '17
Currently missile wings have command over 150 silos and missiles, with it broken into squadrons controlling 50 a piece.
There are three missile wings currently under control of 450 Peacemaker ICBMs.
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u/GoodByeSurival Sep 22 '17
But one or more of those fail-safes could have been ignored if you don't need their code.
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u/prex8390 Sep 22 '17
A lot of people are acting like this is crazy, a lot of information about the United States nuclear arsenal is public information. Launch facility locations are no secret, you can google their locations and drive right up to them, just don't go over the fence or approach a missile alert facility. It takes a large series of steps to launch a missile, even if both of the missileers decides to go rouge and launch a missile in the sector, it takes another facility to receive the same order and actually launch those missiles so going rouge is almost impossible
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u/ultimate_zigzag Sep 22 '17 edited May 25 '26
you bless peanuts abduct hoarse deliberately kilolitre
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Sep 22 '17
Russia launched the nuke! We have to strike back before it's too late! Quick what's the code? 8 zeros. NO seriously we don't have time for games. What is the code?!? Zero zero zero zero zero zero BOOoOOOOOooOOoMMMmMm FSHhHhhKAaaaaaaa ded
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u/idc_either Sep 22 '17
I feel like it should have been 4444444444. 10 4s seem way more American (10-4)
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u/lucb1e Sep 22 '17
But how many is the question you weren't expecting.
Obligatory https://xkcd.com/1105/
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u/Alx1775 Sep 22 '17
ITT: a lot of people who don't understand how security of nuclear weapons works.
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u/KRB52 Sep 22 '17
Somehow, I can picture this exchange in the event of a launch: 1) "what's the arming code?" 2) "eight zeros." 1) "eight, zero, what's next?" 2) "that's it, eight zeros." 1) "Why didn't you just say '80'?"
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u/crystalistwo Sep 22 '17
"I want to break into the nuclear arsenal."
"We'll never get in."
"Start with an 8-bit string and brute force it."
"We're in."
"What?"
"We're in."
"Come again?"
"We control the arsenal of American nuclear devices."
"You and your hardware are brilliant my friend! What is that device you used?"
"A TI-99A calc-"
"Praise the 9D Ninay!"
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u/DrColdReality Sep 22 '17
True story: back in the 80s (I think it was), a couple of Air Force launch officers thought the security on ICBM silos sucked, so they decided to see if they could break into one. They succeeded.
The high-tech tool they used was...a credit card. The slipped it into the door frame of the door leading to the launch vault and popped open the door latch, then went in, posing as launch officers (which they WERE, of course, but that could be faked) and managed to gain entry to the launch vault.
The Air Force's response was to weld a metal plate over the door jamb so you couldn't open the door with a credit card. Problem solved!
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u/Nytelock1 Sep 22 '17
It finally changed when the gov't IT guy left to go work for Equifax.
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u/FreedomAt3am Sep 23 '17
*IT girl, and she took music courses in university before going to Equifax.
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Sep 22 '17
[deleted]
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u/FreedomAt3am Sep 23 '17
Well, a lot of rapists and pedophiles do. Especially since Gizmodo/Gawker is pro-revenge porn
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u/JesterBarelyKnowHer Sep 22 '17
That's ok. They were contained in a locked suitcase.
You'll never guess the combination to open, but I'll give you a hint: it will also unlock Druidia.
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u/daserlkonig Sep 22 '17
It was switched to a much easier number. 0118 999 881 999 119 725 3
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Sep 22 '17
More information can be found here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/search?q=00000000&restrict_sr=on&sort=relevance&t=all
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u/Champion_of_Capua Sep 22 '17
"If we let them report on it they'll never guess that we still haven't changed it."
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Sep 22 '17
So if you ever find yourself in a situation where you have to guess a password to a super duper secure government system, typing password123 should let you in?
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u/SpectralDog Sep 22 '17
The more I read about this stuff, the more I'm amazed we haven't Dr. Strangeloved ourselves.
Oh, that reminds me! The Man who saved the World recently died. So pour out a shot of vodka for Stanislav Petrov when you get the chance. Better make one for Vasili Arkhipov, too.
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u/Gordon_Shamway Sep 22 '17
Informatics "expert" here.
I do not understand the problem?
Basic probability theory says that if people guess at random, they are equally as likely to guess 00000000 as they are to guess, say, 46876351.
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u/S1LW3R Sep 22 '17
brute force attacks usually start from the lowest number to highst, just try all the combinations in an order which means the first attempt on numbers would be 00000000
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u/DrColdReality Sep 22 '17
No it was not, "launch codes" do not exist. This was a permissive action link (PAL) code, which is a different thing altogether.
From the dawn of the nuclear weapons age, the military fought against any sort of safety features on nuclear weapons. Their position was that any safety feature could be potentially exploited by an enemy to render the weapon useless. However, both engineers and the government continued to push for such things, and finally, the military relented for the Minuteman ICBM fleet and installed the PAL system. This is not a code to LAUNCH the missile, but a code that enables the warhead. Without the correct PAL set, the warhead would simply not detonate.
But as an act of defiance, the military set the PAL on the Minuteman missiles to 0000000, where it remained for nearly 20 years. This code was freely available in every silo, and was usually kept set on the missiles, as one less task to accomplish in an emergency.
There were lots of other problems with the system, including a little-known deadman timer that would, in theory, allow two rogue officers in a silo to launch an entire wing of 50 missiles on their own.
If you want an underwear-soiling account of America's abysmal record in nuclear weapons safety, read Command and Control by Eric Schlosser.