Posted on Wednesday, 9th June 2010 by Michael
Can you pop me now?
Like most programs Asterisks offers the ability to launch system commands from with inside the application. This means it is possible for either a developer or a malicious person to execute system commands by simply editing the dial plan and making a phone call.
This is nothing new the ability to execute system commands from within an Asterisk based PBX has been around since it was first developed. A quick Google on the topic of “Asterisk system command” shows me that it has at least been documented since 2007 according to the article found here:
http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/index.php?page_id=166
This article goes into great detail explaining how to set this up. The article also points out how this is insecure and provides a few additional dial plans that can be used to help thwart this command from being abused.
My article is going to look at this from the malicious standpoint and how to create a true phone home.
So you have just popped a Linux box and noticed that is running Asterisk besides the normal mischief you can cause such as racking up long distance calls and recording conversations. Let’s make sure you can get back in any time you want by simply making a call.
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