In traditional TDM phone systems, personal voicemail settings and greetings are accessed / configured by the subscriber/user on traditional voicemail servers via the traditional telephone. Control commands are dialed using the keypad and transmitted using Dial-Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) audio tones. The voice greetings are transmitted using normal audio as well. The audio can be analog or digital, which is encoded in whatever coding scheme is used by the local PBX. In IP based phone systems access to the voicemail server carries the same vulnerabilities as the IP voice communications carried by the system. As such access to voicemail for the purpose of creating greeting messages, retrieving voicemail, or adjusting personal settings, must be encrypted on the IP network. In part this is because anyone with a sniffer and access to the right LAN segment can acquire the subscriber’s account and password information. With this intercepted information a hacker could gain access to the subscribers voice mail account, intercept sensitive information, and/or perform other destructive actions. Once access to settings is achieved there the intruder could change greetings or possibly forward all voicemails received.
Encryption of the voice message traffic as well as control from the phone’s dial-pad falls under the normal requirement for the encryption of VoIP signaling and media.
In the event the subscriber’s personal settings are accessible via a “web” connection using a browser on the subscriber’s desktop or phone, the connection must use HTTPS and TLS minimally to protect the user’s logon credentials. Additionally, the voicemail system/server, which provides this service via a web server application, must be configured in accordance with the “private web server” requirements in the Web Server STIG/Checklist.
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