Linux-Based Phone System Phones Home

An anonymous reader writes to let us know that users of Trixbox, a PBX based on Asterisk, recently discovered that the software has been phoning home with statistics about their installations. It's easy enough to disable, and not particularly steathy (beyond encrypting the data sent back), but customers in the forum are annoyed at not having been informed of the reporting. Trixbox is owned by Fonality, which makes customized PBXs (again based on Asterisk) for paying customers.

Comments

Trick Box

[Deathanatos]

A product named Trixbox is really a box of tricks...

Re:Trick Box

[Tuoqui]

Silly Rabbit, Trix are for Kids.

Re:Trick Box

[Anonymous Coward]

I tried out Trixbox Pro not that long ago but was really turned off by their premise that you must have Internet access to properly configure your server (my VoIP server is NOT on the Internet nor will I do so for privacy and security reasons!). And their appliance is expensive and still needs Internet connectivity. While their old-school Trixbox CE product doesn't have this limitation development on it has slowed down despite their claims of "it's still in development, really!".

AsteriskNOW isn't ready for prime-time yet, though it shows promise long-term.

If you don't want to compile Asterisk yourself and yet you still want to use FreePBX (and you really should!), I highly recommend you check out Nerd Vittles, http://www.nerdvittles.com/ instead -- everything that Trixbox CE could have been.

Re:Trick Box

[Power_Pentode]

"If you don't want to compile Asterisk yourself..."

If you wish, you can use Asterisk without compiling it yourself; several distros have versions of Asterisk in their repositories. I'm pretty much a Linux n00b but once I read which modules are prerequisites, Asterisk compiled easily with the usual ./configure, etc. Thanks for the tip on FreePBX.

Re:Trick Box

[Gilmoure]

Silly Rabbi, kicks are for Trids!

Re:Trick Box

[SpzToid]

I highly recommend you check out Nerd Vittles

Me too! Those guys wanted to work with Trixbox devs, and finally gave up and rolled their own, which is the new PBX-in-Flash voip server. The true open-source devs have released a truely wonderful and solid server. They asked for donations to fund a server, and I'm so impressed with my phone server, humming away for a few weeks already, of course I'm donating; I want more good stuff in the future, and want these PBX-in-Flash devs to stay motivated. Great stuff guys!

Note that the PBX-in-a-Flash devs had no choice, Trixbox/Fonality locked them out of the build process completely. So yeah, they went and rolled their own; and did a great job at that.

So?

[brad-x]

The initial setup at the web GUI makes it apparent that it wants to send stats back to home-base. How this can take people by surprise is baffling.

Re:So?

[irtza]

Well, I have always found it interesting that people get up in arms over these types of things (with open source software). If people are that pissed, let them maintain their own distribution. I can understand if someone had paid for something that they may be mad about this sort of behavior, but people should be happy that someone has put together a great product for their use. I am running a trixbox at my office and may use this info to disable to call home; however, I have no problem with the company taking this measure. I just can't complain about free software.

Re:So?

[syousef]

The initial setup at the web GUI makes it apparent that it wants to send stats back to home-base. How this can take people by surprise is baffling. ...because of course you have read every word of every screen of every version of every installer you've ever used, and never just glossed over any detail. What's baffling is that comments like this get modded up.

Re:So?

[QuantumG]

Well that's your own stupid fault then isn't it?

Re:So?

[insertwackynamehere]

If it really bothers you this much when usage stats are collected, then you can't really gloss over things like the TOS and EULA... you can't have it both ways.

eh?

[LingNoi]

So what does it actually do? Let me explain. We are only looking at the number of phones (and types) that are connected to a system.

So it's sending back some generic data with no personal information so they can do a best estimate of where they need to be spending their time.

What's the problem here?

Re:eh?

[bcdm]

H'm. Let's count the problems together: 1) They did not inform or ask their members that they would be collecting this information. Even the eeeeeeeeevil Microsoft/Apple/whoever we hate today notifies us that generic data is being collected. People tolerate generic data collecting; they don't tolerate duplicity all that well. 2) The data is encrypted, so there's absolutely no way to tell if what they're saying is true or not. 3) They've been doing this for months without anyone noticing it (and letting others know), and now they're acting surprised that people are upset. So they're either stunned beyond all reason or flat-out liars. Pretty good reasons to be pissed, I'd say.

Re:eh?

[arth1]

So it's sending back some generic data with no personal information so they can do a best estimate of where they need to be spending their time.

What's the problem here?

First of all, your claim isn't true. Here's what it currently sends back the output of:

/usr/bin/perl /var/adm/bin/recognition.pl
/bin/uname -r
/bin/rpm -q -a
/sbin/lspci -vn
/usr/sbin/dmidecode
/usr/sbin/wanrouter version
/usr/sbin/wanrouter hwprobe verbose
/usr/sbin/asterisk -V
/bin/cat /etc/redhat-release
/bin/cat /etc/trixbox/trixbox-version
/bin/cat /etc/trixbox/.regData

Note that it sends the registration data on every request. Which means the other data isn't anonymous.

But, and this is much more alarming, it also can execute arbitrary commands. It connects to the remote server, asks it what to execute, and then executes it. That's VERY scary, no matter what is currently collected. Imagine a hacker getting access to the server customers connect to.

Re:eh?

[MadCat]

That's about as scary as a hacker getting complete access to the WindowsUpdate.com servers or some popular Linux distribution update servers, right?

Just the fact that the trixbox developers have shown a serious lack of understanding when it comes to security makes it a lot more likely that a hacker can gain access to the webserver that's being hit on by all the installed trixboxes. All you do then is tell it to go download and install some tasty rootkit.

Presto. Instant botnet for some script kiddie to play with.

Even then, suppose some organisation is using trixbox. You know they're using it, because you've managed to ferret that out. Now all you need to do is figure out who supplies their internet connectivity, do some DNS poisoning, and you've just owned yourself their phone system. Which means you can potentially record all incoming and outgoing calls, and use the phone box as a nice jump-off into the rest of the organisation's network. Industrial spy's wet dream right there.

Security Vuln

[Anonymous Coward]

The issue here is not just the fact that it is phoning home - it is the method in which it is done. This has been reported as a security vulnerability to the voipsec mailing list. http://voipsa.org/pipermail/voipsec_voipsa.org/2007-December/002522.html

This about says it all

[sjames]

From the forum:

The point is that people should have been given a means to easily opt-out of the data collection process which is something we totally overlooked and in seeing the reaction we realize that this was a big mistake on our part. While it is pretty trivial for anyone with basic linux knowledge to disable it, the issue is that a) we didnt inform people well and b) we didn't make it easy to turn off. We thank you for your support on this but anytime there is a more than a few people complaining about something it means we missed the mark on it. So, as a team and a company we fix it and learn from it. -- Kerry Garrison trixbox Community Director

I used to be the lead developer..

[Rob from RPI]

And I'm somewhat annoyed by KerryG's assertion that "Both trixbox and FreePBX have phone-home mechanisms in them." Now, admittedly, I relinquished FreePBX at the beginning of this year due to personal commitments, but I have ALWAYS been dead against 'phone home' information. We DID have a rough idea of how many machines were actively being maintained by the 'hits' on the modules.xml file that contains the current version of all the modules and download links for it. That's it.

The only other slightly information-divulging bit of information was the built-in IRC client did a 'uname -n' and specified what distro the client was running. It broadcast that in a 'notice' to the FreePBX channel. This was highlighted on the IRC page, with exactly what would be sent.

FreePBX has NEVER 'phoned home'. I would be amazingly upset if it was doing so now. Trixbox, on the other hand, may do that, but please do NOT link the FreePBX project with it.

--Rob

Re:I used to be the lead developer..

[Rob from RPI]

Note for those who may have missed the point of my post: Trixbox is Centos + Asterisk + FreePBX + a couple of other things. It's just a bundle of various open source applications on a CD. The main parts of Trixbox are Asterisk and FreePBX, with CentOS as the OS and kernel.

So, when someone mistakenly says 'trixbox does...' they usually mean 'freepbx does...' as FreePBX is the GUI Trixbox uses to configure Asterisk.

--Rob

Re:Stats are useful

[ScrewMaster]

Nah ... it's just that people don't bother to read what's in front of them. Had there been a big blurb during the software install that proclaimed "we collect anonymous usage statistics" nobody would have cared, but because it wasn't made sufficiently obvious people think there's something devious going on.

Mod parent up

[Fnord666]

This is a key point. A cron entry runs a process on the PBX every 24 hours that connects out to trixbox and picks up an arbitrary list of commands. It executes those commands (under whatever authorities it wss installed with) and returns the results. Sure hope their server is up to date on patches. That assumes DNS sent back the right server to begin with and not a spoofed site with a "different" set of commands.
In what universe does this seem like a good idea?

Re:Mod parent up

[grcumb]

This is a key point. A cron entry runs a process on the PBX every 24 hours that connects out to trixbox and picks up an arbitrary list of commands. It executes those commands (under whatever authorities it wss installed with) and returns the results.

What a terrible design! I worked for a couple of years on a FOSS product whose commercial version phoned home by design. It was a small server that allowed remote configuration changes via our NOC. The idea was to provide basic systems admin functionality for multiple geographically dispersed servers. Man-in-the-middle attacks - in either direction - were one of the primary concerns, second only to the privacy of the customer.

We vetted every byte, incoming or outgoing; we worried constantly about both sides of the the authentication process, addressed DNS poisoning and coped properly with pwned clients as well. We never ever passed anything but text between the server and the NOC. Even anti-virus signature updates were performed out-of-band with the 'phone-home' process.

Allowing execution of arbitrarily defined scripts is a disaster in the making. The trust model is entirely wrong, for one thing. I understand now why the manufacturer didn't want to talk about, because no sysadmin in his right mind[*] would accept that someone outside the organisation should ever have the right to run arbitrary code on their boxes without prior vetting.

*****

[*] Unfortunately, 'sysadmins in their right mind' is a far-too-small subset of all sysadmins....

Make your own Linux-based PBX system

[compumike]

We did it ourselves and saved >$100/month for a small business. Just use Asterisk (free and open source), buy some inexpensive but full-featured phones like the Grandstream GXP-2000 (about $80 each), and get a termination provider like VoicePulse Connect for Asterisk ($11/month for four simultaneous channels, free incoming, and below $0.01/min for most outgoing). It took some work to get it all set up and working properly, but now is actually more reliable than the analog phones ever were. (We had phone company issues every few months... just awful.)

--
Educational microcontroller kits for the digital generation.

Re:Make your own Linux-based PBX system

[heelios]

And I recommend that you do NOT get Grandstream phones.

They're pieces of crap. Do yourself a favor and get yourselves phones intended for real business use.

Cisco and Polycom make the later.

Re:and so it begins

[Aetuneo]

So the fact that software installed on Linux will do what it is programmed to do is a reason to migrate away from Linux? I will consider migrating to something else when there are known and exploited holes in the security which allow websites to arbitrarily install software without user permission. Until that, you just have to research what software does to stay safe, or only install software from known and trusted sources. But if you really want to migrate away, don't claim that you are doing it to stay secure: you are doing it because you cannot understand the details of problems, or because you can but just want to move away from Linux, since it is too popular for you.
And please, whatever you do, don't claim that "spyware and other malware" is beginning to show up on Linux - or, if you do want to tell people that, please remember to say that it is stuff which the user has to choose to install, not something which can be installed just be going to an infected website.

Kerry already addressed this in his blog

[Anonymous Coward]

Kerry has already addressed this in his blog:

http://www.trixbox.org/trixboxs-new-hardware-audting-tool

Um

[Gordo_1]

Did anyone bother to notice that your mobile and landline phone companies know *WAY* more about you than this program could ever hope to collect? I mean, these guys bill you for every call you make, know exactly who you're calling and for how long, have been known to allow just about anyone in law enforcement to wiretap your line for even the flimsiest premise, yet the Slashdot crowd is more concerned with an open-source-based PBX collecting some high-level meta-data from users in an opt-out fashion?

Re:Um

[WK2]

Did anyone bother to notice that your mobile and landline phone companies know *WAY* more about you than this program could ever hope to collect ... yet the Slashdot crowd is more concerned with an open-source-based PBX collecting some high-level meta-data from users in an opt-out fashion?

It is possible for a person to be unhappy about two different things. And I don't recall anyone saying anything about the phone companies, including whether they were more or less upset about this or that.

Re:Um

[Minupla]

Hrm, last time I checked, my phone company was unable to open a tunnel from the internal side of my corporate firewall back to them. Since the script allows them to execute *any* command and most people put their PBX inside their most secure corporate network segment, this would prove to be an issue. Leaving beside for the moment the issues of DNS poisoning, and someone hijacking the script.

Min.

Re:an example- not so bad

[syousef]

d; if one can read and discuss Shakespeare or Melville, one can read and discuss that EULA.

Oh and by the way reading Meliville and Shakespeare is called getting an education. It serves a purpose to learn about other times, other places, other language and about heritage. In contrast, reading a EULA is just a complete waste of time. If one does not understand the difference, then one's education has failed one miserably.

Our bias

[Minupla]

OK folks, time to check our bias level here. If Sony installed a script that logged into their website and downloaded a list commands to execute on your system to "collect usage data" would we be impressed? I didn't think so. We were very much up in arms about the Sony Rootkit, and should be about this too.

So if an OSS project does the same why should be any less outraged? Its still a violation of any sort of professional ethics. It doesn't matter that the script is in clear text on the system, who here has the time to go through every script on a new installation of their favorite distribution?

We trust the package suppliers to disclose anything we need to know about. If that trust is breached we call them to task on it.

Well the trust has been breached in this case and the community needs to call the developer to task on it so that it's clear that this sort of behavior is unacceptable. I've read some comments that you're getting it for free. So it would be acceptable for Linus to start including arbitrary command execution backdoors into the kernel?

Remember the Trojan Horse didn't have a price tag attached either!

Min

Additional interesting articles about this issue

[Fnord666]

The folks at nerdvittles.com, an alternative asterisk distro, have weighed in on the subject with a blog post on how good of an idea this was. They provide a very succinct summary of their position in the following:

This clever software should have been reviewed by senior management before it ever saw the light of day. The episode gives all of us a golden opportunity to stop and think about what we're doing and what our fundamental obligations are to those who use our code. Hopefully, Fonality will turn this BOT off... permanently! The problem, of course, is that it's hard to unring a bell. This BOT is already in the wild. Luckily there's a very quick solution in this case. Here's the command that should be added to tomorrow morning's Fonality script: rm -f /var/adm/bin/registry.pl. We'll all sleep better.

The freePBX team has also commented on the issue. In short they want to make it clear that running arbitrary commands sent from the Fonality server is a trixbox/Fonality issue and has nothing to do with freePBX. FreePBX's "phone home" functionality is just a "check for updates" sort of thing.

In the above thread it is mentioned that FreePBX phone's home as well. Instead of splitting hairs over definitions, let me make it perfectly clear what FreePBX does. Most of you are aware of our Online Module Repository that provides easy updates to new versions of FreePBX and its modules (vs. pulling tarballs manually).

Of course if the modules are not digitally signed and verified, then a man in the middle attack is still possible and malicious versions of modules with a little "extra goodness" added could be sent to the pbx for automatic installation.

tribox is a bad deal from the getgo

[visionsofmcskill]

some of you might remember that trixbox started out as asterisk@home.

Ive run A@H 1 and 2 and even trixbox... and i must say... ever since KerryG and fonality took full control and essentially "killed" the A@H branding/identity/ethic/attitude the projec has gone seriously downhill.

Ive had run-ins with kerry before... and all ill say in this public forum is that the guy really isnt a positive influence.

The forking of the porject into CE and Commercial versions was only exacerbating the underlying shift towards an essentially exploitive distro. Requiring a internet connection to trixbox in order to configure your own box? requiring a user account on their site to configure what is obstensibly supposed to be open source based projects? Maybe these actions arent WRONG per say... but cetainly the ethics are questionable.

The truth is, ever since it went this way, ive actually decided NOT to upgrade my A@H 1.3 version. The bells and whistles arent really worth it.

Im hoping some other distro, or fork will come along that remains true to the principals they started with.

Its really sad to see, consdiering how excelent the work that went into A@H / trixbox is. These guys have done a wonderfull job packaging several complicated and time-consuming products together into an easy and accesable distro. However... somewhere along the way someone *cough* kerry *cough* fonality *cough* decided to push those efforts into LOCK-IN style profitability.

(theres nothing wrong with getting commercial support pacakges... but forcing people to sign up to your organization and forking a far less than active sub-version on your comomunity is an insult)