4,016 research outputs found
VoIP security - attacks and solutions
Voice over IP (VoIP) technology is being extensively and rapidly deployed. Flexibility and cost efficiency are the key factors luring enterprises to transition to VoIP. Some security problems may surface with the widespread deployment of VoIP. This article presents an overview of VoIP systems and its security issues. First, we briefly describe basic VoIP architecture and its fundamental differences compared to PSTN. Next, basic VoIP protocols used for signaling and media transport, as well as defense mechanisms are described. Finally, current and potential VoIP attacks along with the approaches that have been adopted to counter the attacks are discussed
SecSip: A Stateful Firewall for SIP-based Networks
SIP-based networks are becoming the de-facto standard for voice, video and
instant messaging services. Being exposed to many threats while playing an
major role in the operation of essential services, the need for dedicated
security management approaches is rapidly increasing. In this paper we present
an original security management approach based on a specific vulnerability
aware SIP stateful firewall. Through known attack descriptions, we illustrate
the power of the configuration language of the firewall which uses the
capability to specify stateful objects that track data from multiple SIP
elements within their lifetime. We demonstrate through measurements on a real
implementation of the firewall its efficiency and performance
A secure archive for Voice-over-IP conversations
An efficient archive securing the integrity of VoIP-based two-party
conversations is presented. The solution is based on chains of hashes and
continuously chained electronic signatures. Security is concentrated in a
single, efficient component, allowing for a detailed analysis.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures. (C) ACM, (2006). This is the author's version of
the work. It is posted here by permission of ACM for your personal use. Not
for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Proceedings of
VSW06, June, 2006, Berlin, German
Preventing Distributed Denial-of-Service Attacks on the IMS Emergency Services Support through Adaptive Firewall Pinholing
Emergency services are vital services that Next Generation Networks (NGNs)
have to provide. As the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) is in the heart of NGNs,
3GPP has carried the burden of specifying a standardized IMS-based emergency
services framework. Unfortunately, like any other IP-based standards, the
IMS-based emergency service framework is prone to Distributed Denial of Service
(DDoS) attacks. We propose in this work, a simple but efficient solution that
can prevent certain types of such attacks by creating firewall pinholes that
regular clients will surely be able to pass in contrast to the attackers
clients. Our solution was implemented, tested in an appropriate testbed, and
its efficiency was proven.Comment: 17 Pages, IJNGN Journa
Intrusion detection mechanisms for VoIP applications
VoIP applications are emerging today as an important component in business
and communication industry. In this paper, we address the intrusion detection
and prevention in VoIP networks and describe how a conceptual solution based on
the Bayes inference approach can be used to reinforce the existent security
mechanisms. Our approach is based on network monitoring and analyzing of the
VoIP-specific traffic. We give a detailed example on attack detection using the
SIP signaling protocol
Taxonomy of P2P Applications
Peer-to-peer (p2p) networks have gained immense popularity in recent years and the number of services they provide continuously rises. Where p2p-networks were formerly known as file-sharing networks, p2p is now also used for services like VoIP and IPTV. With so many different p2p applications and services the need for a taxonomy framework rises. This paper describes the available p2p applications grouped by the services they provide. A taxonomy framework is proposed to classify old and recent p2p applications based on their characteristics
Detecting and Mitigating Denial-of-Service Attacks on Voice over IP Networks
Voice over IP (VoIP) is more susceptible to Denial of Service attacks than traditional data traffic, due to the former's low tolerance to delay and jitter. We describe the design of our VoIP Vulnerability Assessment Tool (VVAT) with which we demonstrate vulnerabilities to DoS attacks inherent in many of the popular VoIP applications available today. In our threat model we assume an adversary who is not a network administrator, nor has direct control of the channel and key VoIP elements. His aim is to degrade his victim's QoS without giving away his presence by making his attack look like a normal network degradation. Even black-boxed, applications like Skype that use proprietary protocols show poor performance under specially crafted DoS attacks to its media stream. Finally we show how securing Skype relays not only preserves many of its useful features such as seamless traversal of firewalls but also protects its users from DoS attacks such as recording of conversations and disruption of voice quality. We also present our experiences using virtualization to protect VoIP applications from 'insider attacks'.
Our contribution is two fold we: 1) Outline a threat model for VoIP, incorporating our attack models in an open-source network simulator/emulator allowing VoIP vendors to check their software for vulnerabilities in a controlled environment before releasing it. 2) We present two promising approaches for protecting the confidentiality, availability and authentication of VoIP Services
- …