Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) networks have freed users from the tyranny of big telecom, allowing people to make phone calls over the Internet at very low or no cost. But while VoIP is easy and cheap, it's notoriously lacking in security. With minimal effort, hackers can eavesdrop on conversations, disrupt phone calls, change caller IDs, insert unwanted audio into existing phone calls, and access sensitive information.

Hacking VoIP takes a dual approach to VoIP security, explaining its many security holes to hackers and administrators. If you're serious about security, and you either use or administer VoIP, you should know where VoIP's biggest weaknesses lie and how to shore up your security. And if your intellectual curiosity is leading you to explore the boundaries of VoIP, Hacking VoIP is your map and guidebook.

Hacking VoIP will introduce you to every aspect of VoIP security, both in home and enterprise implementations. You'll learn about popular security assessment tools, the inherent vulnerabilities of common hardware and software packages, and how to:

• Identify and defend against VoIP security attacks such as eavesdropping, audio injection, caller ID spoofing, and VoIP phishing

• Audit VoIP network security

• Assess the security of enterprise-level VoIP networks such as Cisco, Avaya, and Asterisk, and home VoIP solutions like Yahoo! and Vonage

• Use common VoIP protocols like H.323, SIP, and RTP as well as unique protocols like IAX

• Identify the many vulnerabilities in any VoIP network

Whether you're setting up and defending your VoIP network against attacks or just having sick fun testing the limits of VoIP networks, Hacking VoIP is your go-to source for every aspect of VoIP security and defense.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 2 Ratings

Great resource to understand VoIP security - 2009-04-07
Reviewer Rating:
Voice over IP (VoIP) communications are a core component of the next wave of communications. Consumers and enterprises both are beginning to grasp the benefits of VoIP communications and making the switch from traditional voice communications to VoIP.

VoIP can be a double-edged sword as well though. It provides cost savings. It adds flexibility and extensibility that isn't possible with traditional telephone communications. It enables a whole new scope of applications to interact with and leverage voice communications in whole new ways.

However, with all of those benefits, it also merges voice data onto the standard data network and exposes what was a relatively secure system to a wide variety of attacks and exploits. Traditional voice attacks like eavesdropping or wiretapping are still issues, but on a grander scale. And now voice communications can also be subjected to denial-of-service (DoS) and man-in-the-middle (MiTM) and other attacks that have traditionally been reserved for data networks.

With Hacking VoIP: Protocols, Attacks, and Countermeasures from No Starch Press, Himanshu Dwivedi explores the security issues inherent with VoIP communications and how to protect your VoIP system against them.

Dwivedi opens the book by walking through how to build a VoIP lab environment to use as you read through the book to get first-hand experience and understanding of the VoIP attacks and exploits and the countermeasures to use against them. This hands-on experience helps the reader to see the attacks in action rather than just reading about them.

The book provides a good background on the VoIP protocols themselves, and Dwivedi does an excellent job of explaining the weaknesses and exploits. VoIP admins should read this book and follow Dwivedi's advice to protect their VoIP environments.

An Excellent VoIP Security manual - 2009-07-22
Reviewer Rating:
Eureka! What a pleasant surprise. This is the best Hacking book I have ever read. as matter of fact the book scared me so much that if asked I would classify it as "non-fictional horror".

According to Himanshu Dwivedi "Hacking VoIP is a security book written primarily for VoIP administrators"; This statement is in the introduction of the book, that is the only thing I did not find to be true, I like to change that statement to read something like " .....a security book written primarily for Information Security and Auditors it can also be used by VoIP administrators.....".

I accidentally started reading this book, and I just got hooked. The book is devided into 4 sections;
1-Introduction VoIP Security
2-VoIP Protocols
3-Security treats
4-Securing and Auditing VoIP
The 4 sections are contained in very well organized 10 Chapters. Each chapter, no each line of each chapter is a list of ingredients needed to break in to a VoIP phone, switch or a server.

The author goes at great lengths creating a VoIP lab, following his step by step recommendations and downloading the programs listed, I actually created the exact same lab, I have no idea why. Than downloaded the hacking tools, which should go in the blacklisted application database of every business, once again following the steps outlined in the book I could actually break into conversations, change caller ID (you can really play sick tricks with this feature), and realize that the 6 character password I have for my voice mail is actually crackable in less than 10 minutes.

OK!, Where is the beef? You may ask, how can I use this book? Well! Up to Chapter 9 you learn what a malicious person is or may try to do. Chapter 10 you learn to identify weaknesses and block the attempts, integrating this with a well planned Information Security Management System such as ISO 27001, and creating an audit plan based on recommendations, you can rest assured that your VoIP is secured, you probable need to read about implementing 802.1x, this is also a recommendation in the book.
Best Fishes and thanks for reading.