[Kamailio-Users] Accounting: How to avoid a fraudulent BYE with lower CSeq?

[Daniel-Constantin Mierla]

Hello,

On 12/19/08 01:02, Klaus Darilion wrote:
> my 2 cents:
>
> 1. nice attack ;-)
>
> 2. perform accounting only on a dialog statefull node
>
> 2.1 the gateway is the most accurate accounting source
>
> 2.2 if you need proxy based accounting use a media relay which you 
> disable on BYE
>   

I think that for some particular cases, a two-step accounting is a good 
solution. Like:
- request fwd'ed
- reply fwd'ed

I am thinking when one is willing to account MESSAGEs for example. Once 
forwarded, the service is delivered. If you restart the proxy, then 
200OK won't match an active transaction.

The second step could be just a log message somewhere, when it happens a 
corner case like no active transaction, so additional tools can recover 
proper billing records (here special security checks have to be applied 
anyhow).

I agree with you, that best place for acc is the gateway. Some times the 
service involves more than audio calls, so more things need to be 
accounted, on the proxy.

Cheers,
Daniel

> regards
> klaus
>
> Iñaki Baz Castillo wrote:
>   
>> Hi, first of all I'm sorry for this cross-posting, but I think it
>> could be interesting for any SIP proxy with accounting capabilities.
>>
>> I'm thinking in the following flow in which the caller/attacker would
>> get an unlimited call (but a limited CDR duration):
>>
>> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> attacker                     Kamailio (Acc)                    gateway
>>
>> INVITE (CSeq 12)  ------>
>> <-------- 407 Proxy Auth
>>
>> INVITE (CSeq 13)  ------>
>>                                              INVITE (CSeq 13)  ------>
>>                                              <------------------- 200 Ok
>> <------------------- 200 Ok
>>                          << Acc START >>
>> ACK (CSeq 13) ----------->
>>                                              ACK (CSeq 13) ----------->
>>
>> <******************* RTP ************************>
>>
>> # Fraudulent BYE !!!
>> BYE (CSeq 10) ----------->
>>                          << Acc STOP >>
>>                                              BYE (CSeq 10) ----------->
>>                                              <-- 500 Req Out of Order
>> <-- 500 Req Out of Order
>> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> The call hasn't finished, but Kamailio has ended the accounting for
>> this call since it received a BYE. And this BYE will generate a
>> correct ACC Stop action (since it matches From_tag, To_tag and
>> Call-ID).
>>
>> I think this is *VERY* dangerous and I hope I'm wrong.
>>
>> Would help the dialog module here? does the dialog module check the
>> CSeq of the BYE in some way and could it prevent Kamailio from
>> generating the ACC STOP action? (I don't think so).
>>
>> I've also asked in SIP-implementors and an idea could be generating
>> the ACC STOP action when receiving the 200 OK for the BYE (and not
>> when receiving the BYE itself). Of course this will be valid when the
>> gateway is the recipient of the BYE (and we know the gateway is not an
>> "attacker"), but this is not valid when the recipient of the BYE is an
>> user since it could send no reply for the BYE.
>>
>> The only solution I see is:
>>
>> - Using the dialog module, Kamailio should check the CSeq value in the BYE.
>>  1) Kamailio should forward the BYE just in case the CSeq is higher
>> than the actual CSeq for this dialog direction.
>>  2) Kamailio should generate the ACC STOP action just in case the CSeq
>> is higher than the actual CSeq for this dialog direction.
>>
>> Both 1) and 2) are needed since a gateway could accept a BYE with
>> wrong CSeq. In this case the call is ended but the accounting STOP
>> action doesn't exist (infinite call).
>>
>> But I think this is too complex, isn't it?
>>
>>
>>
>>     
>
> _______________________________________________
> Users mailing list
> Users at lists.kamailio.org
> http://lists.kamailio.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/users
>   

-- 
Daniel-Constantin Mierla
http://www.asipto.com