Vulnerabilities in Cisco's VOIP system

By Matthew Broersma

July 15, 2005 12:00 PM ET

TechWorld.com - Cisco Systems Inc. has disclosed that a core component of its enterprise VOIP system is vulnerable to several serious security flaws. The flaws could allow remote attackers to compromise a company's VOIP network, redirect or listen in on calls and carry out other malicious intent, according to Cisco and Internet Security Systems (ISS), which discovered the flaws.
While the bugs haven't yet been exploited, they represent one of the most high-profile security scares in enterprise IP telephony to date. Companies are moving quickly to shift to IP-based telephone networks, with Gartner predicting that by 2007, 97% of new enterprise phone systems installed in North America will be either VOIP or a hybrid. Cisco leads the market at the moment by a wide margin, with a 42% share in North America, followed by Avaya with 14%, 3Com with 11% and Nortel with 9%, according to Gartner's research.
Cisco reported five separate security bugs in CallManager, the call-processing component of the Cisco IP telephony system. The most serious is in the aupair.exe service, which could allow a remote attacker to cause a buffer overflow and execute malicious code. Aupair.exe can't be disabled for normal CallManager use, Cisco said.
CallManager is vulnerable in its default configuration, and an attack could be carried out without the need for prior authentication, ISS said. "An attacker may be able to redirect calls or perform eavesdropping as a result of this compromise. Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could be used to gain unauthorized access to networks and machines with Cisco VOIP products," the security firm said in an advisory.
Cisco has released patches for the affected versions of CallManager, including 3.3 and earlier, 4.0 and 4.1. Its advisory and patching instructions are on Cisco's Web site.

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