Motorola VT2142 Vulnerable to VoIP Attacks...

Posts: 114

Found at: http://www.sipera.com/index.php?action=company,press_release&id=366

Quote:

Sipera VIPER Lab determined the Vonage Voip Motorola Phone Adapter (VT 2142-VD) and Vonage service implementations leave users vulnerable to a form of Voip identity theft, allowing hackers to take over a user’s phone service with a “registration replay attack,” then make and receive calls while impersonating the victim. Incomplete security practices, such as not encrypting traffic, open Vonage users to eavesdropping on private voice and video communications. Hackers can also send multiple SIP INVITE messages to a user, an Internet version of “ringing the phone off the hook” which creates a DoS attack. Leveraging these vulnerabilities, remote attackers can also send malicious messages directly to Vonage users, subjecting them to spam, social engineering and Voip scams.

“These vulnerabilities create serious privacy and service availability issues for users,” said Krishna Kurapati, Sipera founder/CTO and head of Sipera VIPER Lab. “Vonage, Globe7 and Grandstream customers can no longer assume that their Voip providers are automatically securing their services, but they should demand best security practices be followed as a condition of becoming a customer. Sipera VIPER Lab will continue to proactively identify Voip threats and assist Voip providers to implement best security practices before attacks occur.”

Being a user of Motorola VT-2142, this report concerns me greatly. Does anyone else know anything about this. Vonage is reported to know about this, but hasn't responded as reported by Reuters.

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Apr 08, 2006 Posts: 1

According to the post at dslreports Vonage is not the only Voip provider that has this problem.
They also suggest that encrypting Voip calls would solve the problem.

dslreports

Posts: 328 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Dec 13, 2005 Posts: 328

Almost any Voip service is vulnerable here. Of course, POTS is vulnerable too. The "Denial of Service" attack is equivalent to someone continually dialing our POTS phone number (or accidentally putting you in an auto-redial FAX, which I have had happen to me), which then results in you taking the phone off the hook and throwing it in a closet.

For the wiretap case - there's nothing in Voip that can't be done with some pretty simple equipment connected to the POTS network interface on the outside of your house.

Unless you are in the "security business", which these guys happen to be in, this comes out as a "so what"?