GNU.FREE is a free voting system that was officially part of the

GNU GNU ( ) is an extensive collection of free software (394 packages ), which can be used as an operating system or can be used in parts with other operating systems. The use of the completed GNU tools led to the family of operating systems popu ...

project. The author of GNU.FREE has publicly discontinued his work on the project, due to disillusionment with the concept of secure Internet voting.

Overview of protocol

In GNU.FREE there are two servers, the electoral roll server (ERServer), and the regional server (RTServer). All communications are encrypted using

Blowfish Tetraodontidae is a family of marine and freshwater fish in the order Tetraodontiformes. The family includes many familiar species variously called pufferfish, puffers, balloonfish, blowfish, blowers, blowies, bubblefish, globefish, swellfish, ...

encryption with a key exchanged by

RSA encryption The RSA (Rivest–Shamir–Adleman) cryptosystem is a public-key cryptosystem, one of the oldest widely used for secure data transmission. The initialism "RSA" comes from the surnames of Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir and Leonard Adleman, who publicly ...

. The voter submits authentication information to the ERServer, who validates it. The voter then fills out a ballot, and sends a key along with a timestamp to the RTServer. The RT-Server then stores this, and challenges the voter for the timestamp again. If the voter provides the valid timestamp, then the key is decrypted and sent to the ERServer. The ERServer records that the voter has submitted a key and cannot vote again. The RTServer then decrypts the vote, stores it and deletes the key.

References

External links

* {{Official website GNU Project software