News

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

VoIP Insecurity

WIN_SECURITY UPDATE_
A Penton Media Property
April 9, 2008


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IN FOCUS

--VoIP Insecurity
by Mark Joseph Edwards, News Editor
VoIP technology is growing in popularity by leaps and bounds. Aside from
virtualization and Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax), I can't think
of another technology that's growing so rapidly. Naturally, VoIP
security is a growing concern and plenty of vulnerabilities have already
been discovered.

For example, so far there have been at least 10 security problems
discovered in Skype--a popular desktop VoIP solution. Asterisk--a hugely
popular open source VoIP gateway PBX solution--is no stranger to
vulnerabilities either. Last time I checked, about two dozen problems
had been reported over the past few years.

So what about high-profile commercial VoIP solutions? Apparently some of
those aren't faring any better. In fact, some are far worse. Last week,
VoIPshield Systems launched a list of 44 vulnerabilities that it
discovered in Cisco, Avaya, and Nortel VoIP solutions (at the URL
below). Many of the problems are extremely dangerous, including numerous
bugs that allow code execution and unauthorized access.

www.voipshield.com/research (http://ct.email.windowsitpro.com/rd/cts?d=33-5460-803-202-62923-533298-0-0-0-1-2-207)

Out of those 44 vulnerabilities, only 17 have been fixed. Vendors are
reportedly working on fixes for the remaining 27 problems. A quick
glance at the list shows that Cisco's Unified Communications Manager
(UCM) is by far the most bug-ridden. Here's a jaw-dropper for you:
Cisco's UCM and Unified Communications Server were found to have a total
of 19 hard-coded user names and passwords! Why Cisco decided to take
such a gigantic risk is nearly beyond comprehension. Hard-coding
credentials is probably one of the dumbest decisions any developer could
make.

And what about Microsoft? Of course the company has its own VoIP
solution, Office Communications Server 2007. VoIPshield intends to run
that solution through the wringer, so we'll undoubtedly see at least a
few security problems turn up when the findings become available.

Hopefully you've analyzed and secured your own VoIP infrastructure, but
apparently a lot of companies haven't done so. According to In-Stat, a
digital communications market research firm, as of September 2007, over
80 percent of the companies it polled had deployed VoIP, but 40 percent
had no specific plans to secure their VoIP installations, even though
they had budgets in place to do so! Leaping into the use of VoIP without
first conducting pre-deployment assessments and without planning and
making installations secure from day one obviously isn't smart.

There's a book available that can help you get a handle on VoIP risks
that you might face. "Hacking Exposed VoIP: Voice Over IP Security
Secrets & Solutions," by David Endler of TippingPoint and Mark Collier
of SecureLogix, was released in late 2006 and is available at Amazon (at
the URL below). You might also consider heading over to the Voice over
IP Security Alliance (VOIPSA) Web site (at the second URL below) to do
some reading. It has a lengthy list of articles that will help bring you
up to speed relatively quickly. It also provides a number of very
helpful white papers and a list of dozens of VoIP-related security
tools.

www.amazon.com/Hacking-Exposed-VoIP-Security-Solutions/dp/0072263644
(http://ct.email.windowsitpro.com/rd/cts?d=33-5460-803-202-62923-533299-0-0-0-1-2-207)

www.voipsa.org (http://ct.email.windowsitpro.com/rd/cts?d=33-5460-803-202-62923-533300-0-0-0-1-2-207)

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SECURITY NEWS AND FEATURES

--RSA Conference 2008, Day 1
The biggest story of the RSA Conference 2008 meeting of security
professionals yesterday (opening day) was Department of Homeland
Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's keynote address. He said that
enhancing cybersecurity is a major focus for this year. Read about this
and other highlights of the day.
To view the full article go to:
http://ct.email.windowsitpro.com/rd/cts?d=33-5460-803-202-62923-533302-0-0-0-1-2-207

--Company Seeks to Untangle Web Filtering Abilities
Untangle, a company that offers open source security solutions, said
that it will pit six top Web content filtering solutions against each
other to discover how each fares at filtering porn. The comparison will
take place during the RSA Conference on April 9 and the results will be
made available to the public shortly thereafter.
To view the full article go to:
http://ct.email.windowsitpro.com/rd/cts?d=33-5460-803-202-62923-533303-0-0-0-1-2-207

--oCERT Launches for Open Source Incidents and Vulnerabilities
oCERT aims to help handle security issues centered around open source
projects. Sponsored by Google, Inverse Path, and Open Source Lab, the
project will work similarly to other well-known computer emergency
response teams around the world.
To view the full article go to:
http://ct.email.windowsitpro.com/rd/cts?d=33-5460-803-202-62923-533304-0-0-0-1-2-207

--EDS Acquires UK-based Vistorm
EDS announced that it has acquired Vistorm, a UK-based provider of
information assurance and managed security services.
To view the full article go to:
http://ct.email.windowsitpro.com/rd/cts?d=33-5460-803-202-62923-533305-0-0-0-1-2-207

--Recent Security Vulnerabilities
If you subscribe to this newsletter, you also receive Security Alerts,
which inform you about recently discovered security vulnerabilities. You
can also find information about these
discoveries at

www.windowsitpro.com/departments/departmentid/752/752.html
(http://ct.email.windowsitpro.com/rd/cts?d=33-5460-803-202-62923-533306-0-0-0-1-2-207)


GIVE AND TAKE

--SECURITY MATTERS BLOG: Opera 9.27 Security Update Available
by Mark Joseph Edwards
Three security problems were fixed in Opera's latest browser release, so
it's time to upgrade, especially since arbitrary code execution is among
the problems that were corrected. Read the blog to learn more.
windowsitpro.com/blog/index.cfm?action=BlogIndex&DepartmentID=949
(http://ct.email.windowsitpro.com/rd/cts?d=33-5460-803-202-62923-533307-0-0-0-1-2-207)

--FAQ: SCCM Native Mode and Mixed Mode
by John Savill
Q: What's the difference between Microsoft System Center Configuration
Manager 2007 (SCCM) native mode and mixed mode?

Find the answer at
windowsitpro.com/article/articleid/98745
(http://ct.email.windowsitpro.com/rd/cts?d=33-5460-803-202-62923-533308-0-0-0-1-2-207)

--SHARE YOUR SECURITY TIPS AND GET $100
Share your security-related tips, comments, or problems and solutions in
Security Pro VIP's Reader to Reader column. Email your contributions to
r2r@securityprovip.com (mailto:r2r@securityprovip.com). If we print your
submission, you'll get $100. We edit submissions for style, grammar, and
length.


PRODUCTS

--Monitor Encrypted Database Traffic
by Renee Munshi
Guardium announced that its database activity monitoring (DAM) solution
Guardium 7.0 is the first to be able to inspect encrypted traffic. It
can do so on Windows, Sun Solaris, IBM AIX, HP-UX, Red Hat Linux, and
SUSE Linux for all network encryption methods used in Oracle
environments, including Oracle Advanced Security Option (ASO), IPsec,
SSH and SSL tunnels, and encryption offloaded from the CPU to a NIC.
Guardium says its DAM solution analyzes all database traffic in real
time, providing the "who, what, when, where and how" of each
transaction. For more information, go to
www.guardium.com/ (http://ct.email.windowsitpro.com/rd/cts?d=33-5460-803-202-62923-533309-0-0-0-1-2-207)


RESOURCES AND EVENTS

Fax Server Fundamentals eBook
At its simplest, a fax server is a software application that provides a
central network resource for sending and receiving faxes from anywhere
on the LAN/WAN network or from a Web browser over the Internet. From the
perspective of the IT department, implementing a fax server solution
brings benefits to users as well as to those charged with supporting
them and the business. Find out how you can completely serve your
customers while implementing a solution that's easy to support, secure,
and integrate.
windowsitpro.com/eBooks/index.cfm?fuseaction=ebook&ebid=5a34b838-4394-4966-a989-0d1373be7911&code=040208er
(http://ct.email.windowsitpro.com/rd/cts?d=33-5460-803-202-62923-533310-0-0-0-1-2-207)

From the data center to the desktop, virtualization is having a
far-reaching impact on the IT industry. Delivered directly to your inbox
twice a month, Virtualization UPDATE gives you the information you need
to stay ahead in this rapidly growing segment of the IT marketplace.
Sign up today!

www.windowsitpro.com/email/dsp_SubscribeConfirmation.cfm
(http://ct.email.windowsitpro.com/rd/cts?d=33-5460-803-202-62923-533311-0-0-0-1-2-207)

SQL Server 2008 and the Development Environment
Your database platform should do more than simply hold data--it should
let developers create fully functional applications. Randy Dyess, SQL
Server MVP, discusses the new, rich development features of SQL Server
2008, which help database developers make the most of the time they have
to create functional database applications. Watch this video to learn
how SQL Server 2008 allows developers to more easily develop robust
applications.
www.sqlmag.com/go/sqldevelopers/?code=040208er
(http://ct.email.windowsitpro.com/rd/cts?d=33-5460-803-202-62923-533312-0-0-0-1-2-207)


FEATURED WHITE PAPER

Learn best practices for IT security from your peers! This independent
study details quantitative research from 450 interviews with IT managers
and general employees. It addresses employee Internet access at work and
other related security issues that are keeping IT managers up at night.
Download this report and find out what your peers are thinking.
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(http://ct.email.windowsitpro.com/rd/cts?d=33-5460-803-202-62923-533313-0-0-0-1-2-207)


ANNOUNCEMENTS

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