VoIP Hacking Exposed

["Dude VanWinkle" <dudevanwinkle () gmail com>]

from: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/08/03/voip_hacking_exposed/

Businesses who switch over to internet telephony systems in a bid to
slash telephony costs have been warned to guard against hacking
attacks.

The latest VoIP security threats and countermeasures were outlined at
a presentation at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas on
Wednesday. The talk, by security experts from SecureLogix and 3Com's
Tipping Point security appliance division, was accompanied by the
release of 13 new security tools.

SecureLogix CTO Mark Collier and David Endler, director of security
research at 3Com explained how the scope and severity of attacks on
VoIP networks is likely to increase as adoption increases. That much
is well enough understood in security circles but the talk aimed at
going further by explaining the types of attacks that are likely to
occur and how to defend against these exploits. A variety of VoIP
attack scenarios were outlined by Collier and Endler, the chairman of
the Voice over IP Security Alliance (VOIPSA).

Alongside the talk, the security researchers released 13 new tools
designed to illustrate generic flaws on insecure VoIP systems. These
tools, released to assist penetration testers and corporate sys admin,
illustrated how it might be possible to overload phones with spurious
traffic, flood IP telephony phones with calls, force hang-ups, reboot
phones or reassign devices to other users. The tools all target
systems using Sessions Initiation Protocol (SIP). Most current systems
from leading vendors such as Cisco and Nortel are moving from
proprietary protocols towards SIP, so the threats outlined are more
for future reference than current use. Greater adoption of SIP will
bolster interoperability between the equipment of various vendors.

"The majority of VoIP systems out there are not SIP enabled. Most of
them are pushing forward with SIP adoption," Endler told News.com. IP
telephony system vendors, such as Mitel, have welcomed the release of
the tools as a positive step towards VoIP security. However Endler
acknowledged that the availability of security testing tools has its
downside. "Obviously, releasing any security tools is a double-edged
sword in that you can't restrict who has access," he said.

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-JP<sigh>
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