May 17, 2007
Sipera Finds New VoIP Phone Security Threats

By Calvin Azuri
TMCnet Contributing Editor

Sipera VIPER Lab, a supplier of security solutions for VoIP, mobile and multimedia communications, has disclosed six threat advisories for SIP-based VoIP phones from Aastra, Polycom (News - Alert) and Snom. These threat advisories are in addition to the WiFi/dual-mode phone and general SIP vulnerabilities it published earlier this spring.
 
These vulnerabilities expose users to denial of service, unwanted reboots, uninitiated toll calls, and allow access to private call records.
 
The Aastra 9112i SIP phones threat encompasses an improper error handling and string vulnerability which may allow remote attackers to cause denial of service.
 
Polycom SoundPoint IP 601 SIP phones face vulnerability in HTTP service which may allow attackers to remotely reboot the phone, while Snom-320 SIP phones face an information leak vulnerability which may allow remote access to users' private call records and a weak authentication vulnerability allowing a remote attacker to misuse the phone.
 
Krishna Kurapati, Sipera founder/CTO and head of Sipera VIPER Lab stated that unlike PCs and laptops, IP handsets act as servers on the network since they need to answer calls. With multiple open ports and services running on thousands of these IP handsets in the enterprise, they can be easily exploited by hackers and malicious users.
 
Calvin Azuri is a contributing writer for TMCnet
 
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