Category: VoIP Security

Sep 30

Calling All Vendors! Test Your SIP over TLS at SIPit 29 Oct 24-28 in Monaco

SIPitAre you a vendor of SIP software or hardware devices? If so, do you support SRTP or SIP over TLS? If you do – or are thinking about doing so – why don’t you join Olle Johansson for some interoperability testing at SIPit 29, October 24-28, in Monaco?

Olle raised just that suggestion today in the VOIPSEC mailing list and said that he will be there focused on testing VoIP security (and also IPv6). As he said:

Customers need at least first hop TLS and SRTP to work as expected. They also need interoperability between devices. To get interoperability, everyone needs to work with it. It just doesn’t happen by accident. SIPit has been organised twice a year for 15 years in order to get the amount of interoperability we have today in SIP.

If you develop SIP software or devices – register for SIPit now. If you are a customer and have seen issues in this area, remind your vendors to participate. The more we are, the more time we can spend on VoIP protocol security.

The SIPit test events are outstanding places to go and test your software or hardware. For the relatively small fee and your time and travel, you have access to an incredible test bed in the form of all the other vendors participating. Where else will you get to interact with designers and engineers from all the major vendors and not only test your software/hardware, but also re-test your equipment if you try some fixes while you are there.

You still have time to register for SIPit29 and join Olle and others in the security testing.

P.S. If you aren’t aware of the SIPit events, more info can be found on the main SIPit site. They are held twice a year in various locations. The summaries of past SIPit events give you a good flavor for the type of testing that goes on.

Sep 20

Skype for iOS/iPhone Vulnerable to Cross-Site-Scripting (XSS) Attack

News from the SUPEREVR security blog is that Skype for iOS is vulnerable to a cross-site scripting (XSS) attack that allows an attacker to send someone a message and, for instance, capture that user’s address book from their iPhone.

The author of the article posted a video that demonstrates the attack:

He further states in a tweet that he notified Skype of the vulnerability on August 24th:

In case anyone is wondering, I disclosed the vulnerability to Skype on 8/24. I was told an update would be released early this month.

Skype has issued a statement through their PR firm:

We are working hard to fix this reported issue in our next planned release which we hope to roll out imminently. In the meantime, we always recommend people exercise caution in only accepting friend requests from people they know and practice common sense Internet security as always.

Skype’s mitigation recommendation is a good one as the default privacy setting is typically that you can only receive chat messages from people on your Contact list. Therefore, the attacker would have to be someone who you have authorized and added to your contact list.

Meanwhile, hopefully Skype will be out with their update soon.

P.S. Hat tip to Tom Keating for writing about this exploit as that was where I first learned of it.