David Endler: Hacking VOIP Exposed

Black Hat Briefings, Las Vegas 2006 [Video] Presentations from the security conference

Lately there seems to be an explosion of press hype around the possibility of hackers exploiting Voice-over-IP networks and services (Skype, Vonage, etc.). VoIP Spam, Caller ID Spoofing, Toll Fraud, VoIP Phishing, Eavesdropping, and Call Hijacking are just some of the terms being thrown around that seem to cause a fair share of fear and uncertainty in the market. We set out to write "Hacking Exposed VoIP" in part to combat this FUD, and also in order to help admins prioritize and defend against the most prevalent threats to VoIP today through real exploitation examples. This presentation is the byproduct of our research for the book. In it, we describe and demonstrate many real-world VoIP exploitation scenarios against SIP-based systems (Cisco, Avaya, Asterisk, etc.), while providing a sense of realism on which attacks are likely to emerge into the public domain. Also, we will unveil several VoIP security tools we wrote to facilitate the exploiting and scanning of VoIP devices, along with a few 0-days we discovered along the way. As VoIP is rolled out rapidly to enterprise networks this year, the accessibility and sexiness of attacking VoIP technology will increase. The amount of security research and bug hunting around VoIP products has only reached the tip of the iceberg and we predict many more vulnerabilities will begin to emerge. David Endler is the director of security research for 3Com's security division, TippingPoint. In this role, he oversees 3Com's internal product security testing, VoIP security center, and TippingPoint’s vulnerability research teams. Endler is also the chairman and founder of the industry group Voice over IP Security Alliance (VOIPSA). VOIPSA's mission is to drive adoption of VoIP by promoting the current state of VoIP security research, testing methodologies, best practices, and tools. Prior to TippingPoint, Endler led the security research teams at iDEFENSE. In previous lives, he has performed security research working for Xerox Corporation, the National Security Agency, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Endler is the author of numerous articles and papers on computer security and holds a Masters degree in Computer Science from Tulane University. Mark Collier, CTO for SecureLogix Corporation, is responsible for research and related intellectual property. Previously, Mr. Collier was with the Southwest Research Institute for 14 years, where he contributed to and managed software research and development projects in a wide variety of fields, including information warfare. Mr. Collier has been working in the industry for 20 years, and has spent the past decade working in security, telecommunications, and networking. He is a frequent author and presenter on the topic of voice and VoIP security and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from St. Mary’s University."