Re: War Dial on my PBX

From: Volker Tanger (volker.tangerat_private)
Date: Wed Jun 25 2003 - 09:37:39 PDT

  • Next message: .:[ Death Star]:.: "RE: War Dial on my PBX"

    Greetings!
    
    Are you sure the calls are not automated SPM (voice or fax
    telemarketers)? Such should be fairly easy to stop once you got a hold
    of a single instance/copy, so I guess this is not the case.
    
    So what you experience seems to be a brute-force attack against your
    phone system where the attacker seems to try to  get access to
    connection and/or voicebox control. They usually call boxes/numbers and
    try different combinations of DMTF in hope to find a combination that
    gives them access. Often these access codes work even if they are not
    announced in the voice help.
    
    
    On Wed, 25 Jun 2003 01:03:26 -0500 "Dave Phelps"
    <tippenringat_private> wrote:
    > There's not a lot you can do. 
    
    I'd like to object here. One is to secure your phone system (here:
    Meridian). This way you can (depending on your business needs) disable
    remote controlling and thus discourage phreaking attempts ("nothing to
    gain here, sorry pal..."). Depending on the phone system you can even
    try to tarpit callers (e.g. IVR set to loop a "Sorry, not implemented
    - press 0 to return to main menu"). 
    
    Second you can evaluate the logs - if the caller did not disable CLID
    you have his number. Else - see previous posting: turn to your telco.
    
    
    > As far as voicemail insecurity, the problem is virtually always the
    > subscribers using weak passwords that get penetrated. 
    
    ...or a weak configuration of the PBX itself, if it was left with all
    possible services enabled. Especially the Meridian had a bad record of
    being shipped with all stuff enabled as factory default. Strong
    passwords did not help here, only bastioning (i.e. proper configuration)
    of the system. 
    
    OTOH we regularily find >60% of all voice box passwords still being set
    to the default when performing an audit in companies.
    
    
    Ask your contracted telephone system supplier/supporter for help to
    secure your system. If he cannot help, ask experts, maybe even turn
    directly to the hardware company. Shameless plug: we provide such
    support for Nortel, Ericson and (of course) DeTeWe systems in
    (continental) Europe.
    
    Bye
    
    Volker Tanger
    
    ITK-Security
    DeTeWe AG & Co. KG
    
    Fon +49 30 6104-3307
    Fax +49 30 6104-3435
    http://www.detewe.de/
    
    -- 
    
    
         
    
    
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