Is someone using your VoIP phone to eavesdrop on you?

A leading member of the Jericho Forum has criticised the security of voice-over-IP technology after security researchers revealed that it was possible to eavesdrop on VoIP conversations.

An eavesdropping vulnerability was revealed on the popular Full Disclosure mailing list on Wednesday. Vulnerability researchers Humberto Abdelnur, Radu State and Olivier Festor claimed the exploit could allow a remote attacker to turn a VoIP phone into an eavesdropping device, citing a Grandstream SIP phone as an example.

The Jericho Forum is an international group of leading corporate security professionals, academics and vendors, and promotes the development of secure software architectures, among other IT security interests.