Fergie's Tech Blog

IBM ISS Researcher Exposes Holes In Cisco's Internet Surveillance Architecture

Kelly Jackson Higgins writes on Dark Reading:

Black Hat DC 2010 -- An IBM ISS researcher here today revealed major security holes in a little-known wiretapping architecture for IP networks created by Cisco Systems for law enforcement. The weaknesses could result in an attacker interfering with legal surveillance or performing some unauthorized surveillance of his own.

Tom Cross, manager of X-Force Research at IBM ISS, says he first discovered the Cisco Architecture for Lawful Intercept in IP Networks, which was published as an IETF RFC in 2004, four years ago. The document, also known as IETF RFC 3924, is based on the lawful intercept architecture used by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, and is implemented in Cisco's edge and switch routers -- the 7600, 10000, 12000, and AS5000 series products. Cross says other vendors also have deployed the architecture within their network devices.

Cross says an alleged criminal could discover that he was under law enforcement's surveillance using the current architecture, allowing him to manipulate or corrupt the information collected or to use the surveillance information for nefarious purposes.

posted by Fergie @ 2/03/2010 09:18:00 PM