CVE-2007-5791 in Motorola Phone Adapter
Summary
by MITRE
The Vonage Motorola Phone Adapter VT 2142-VD does not properly verify that a SIP INVITE message originated from a legitimate server, which allows remote attackers to send spoofed INVITE messages, as demonstrated by a flood of messages triggering a denial of service, and by phone calls with malicious content.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/17/2022
The Vonage Motorola Phone Adapter VT 2142-VD represents a significant security vulnerability classified as CVE-2007-5791, which stems from inadequate authentication mechanisms within the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) implementation. This device fails to properly validate the authenticity of SIP INVITE messages, creating a critical weakness that enables malicious actors to exploit the system through spoofed communications. The vulnerability specifically targets the SIP protocol's trust model, where legitimate servers are expected to be verified before processing incoming requests, but this verification mechanism is completely bypassed in the affected hardware.
The technical flaw manifests in the adapter's inability to authenticate SIP INVITE messages through proper cryptographic means or server validation checks. This weakness allows remote attackers to craft and transmit fraudulent SIP INVITE messages that appear to originate from legitimate sources within the network. The vulnerability operates at the application layer of the network stack, specifically targeting the SIP signaling protocol that governs voice over internet protocol communications. Attackers can exploit this by simply sending spoofed INVITE messages to the device, which lacks the proper validation mechanisms to distinguish between authorized and unauthorized communications.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple authentication failure, creating both denial of service conditions and potential data integrity compromises. When attackers flood the device with spoofed INVITE messages, they can overwhelm the system resources and effectively prevent legitimate phone calls from being processed, resulting in service disruption that directly affects business communications. Additionally, the ability to inject malicious content through these spoofed calls creates a vector for more sophisticated attacks including voice manipulation, call interception, and potentially unauthorized access to the communication infrastructure. This vulnerability directly violates the principle of authentication and authorization that should be fundamental to any communication device.
The security implications of this vulnerability align with CWE-287, which addresses improper authentication issues in network protocols, and can be mapped to ATT&CK technique T1566 for social engineering through spoofed communications. Organizations using this device face significant risks as the vulnerability enables attackers to impersonate legitimate servers within the VoIP network, potentially leading to unauthorized access to communication channels and the ability to manipulate voice traffic. The impact is particularly severe for businesses relying on VoIP infrastructure, as it undermines the fundamental trust model that VoIP systems depend upon for secure communications.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability require immediate hardware updates or replacement of the affected devices, as the flaw exists at the firmware level within the device's SIP implementation. Network administrators should implement additional monitoring mechanisms to detect unusual patterns of SIP traffic and establish proper access controls to limit unauthorized network access. The recommended approach includes deploying SIP-specific firewalls and implementing proper network segmentation to isolate VoIP traffic from general network communications. Organizations should also consider implementing SIP authentication mechanisms such as digest authentication or TLS encryption to provide additional layers of protection against spoofing attacks. Regular security assessments and vulnerability scanning should be conducted to identify similar weaknesses in other VoIP infrastructure components.