Cатсн²² (in)sесuяitу / ChrisJohnRiley

Because we're damned if we do, and we're damned if we don't!

Tag Archives: voip

SANS VoIP Security Class

1 Comment Posted by on December 4, 2008

sansWhile at the SANS London conference I attended the VoIP Security class held by Raul Siles. VoIP is not a small topic, and the field is still in flux when it comes to security. We had 2 days to cover a range of topics, and to fit it all into the 2 days the course was run bootcamp style (9am to 8pm). Overall I got a lot out of the course, in particular the lab exercises and the review of the underlying protocols (SIP and RTSP).

The first day lays the foundation by reviewing the protocols, and learning the networking side of VoIP security. The second day concentrates more on attacks against the environment, and where possible, remediation to defend against these attacks. As theVoIP arena is in flux, and growing day by day, the solutions are not 100%. However a majority of issues are covered from both attack and defence viewpoints.

Overall I though the course was well formed, although it could do with a little less theory and more on the hands on side. After all, we can all read a book on the theory side, but not everyone has the facilities to do the hands-on exercises. This is the first time theVoIP course has been done in Europe, so I hope they take our comments back and streamline the course for future attendees.

Next is the Web App Penetration Testing and Ethical Hacking class (SEC:542)

Conference, Penetration Test, Security, Study, Technology , ,

Hacking Exposed: VOIP

1 Comment Posted by on November 9, 2008

0000ap892In preparation for the upcoming SANS London VOIP Security course, I’ve been reading through the Hacking Exposed: VOIP book. I finally got the chance to finish up the book over the weekend and must say, I came out the other end feeling a little disappointed. I’d skimmed the book before, and at first glance the contents seems really in-depth. However after reading the book cover to cover, the amount of repetition really began to become tiring. I found myself actually skipping sections as the tests discussed seemed to be repeats from earlier sections of the book, together with the same suggestions for blocking attacks. I understand the reasoning for this however, as there are only a certain amount of protections against  Denial of Service floods, spoofing or Man in the Middle attacks. However, that said the solutions could easily have been grouped together as a separate chapter to prevent the repetition.

VOIP has come a long way in the last few years, and the attacks mentioned in the book have probably been overtaken by newer exploits and attack vectors. Maybe this was simply a case of too little content to fill the book with new and exciting attack types. Here’s hoping that the second edition will be reformatted to make the most of the information held within.

Security, Study, Technology , ,