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Orgasmatron 5.2: The Secure Swiss Army Knife for Asterisk

Monday, March 15, 2010 / 18 Comments on Orgasmatron 5.2: The Secure Swiss Army Knife for Asterisk

blankIt’s been an exciting couple of weeks watching the overwhelmingly positive response to our release of Orgasmatron 5.1. With this version, we introduced a new Asterisk® security model that took into account the ever-increasing security risks posed by exposing web and telephony servers to direct Internet access. The bottom line is this. If your telecom requirements still can be accomplished by placing a server securely behind a $35 hardware-based Internet firewall with no Internet exposure, then it makes absolutely no sense to dangle such a tempting target in front of the world’s most nefarious creeps.

News Flash: Incredible PBX 4.0 is now available with FreePBX 2.10 support!

Coming January 19: Incredible PBX 11 & Incredible Fax for Asterisk 11 and FreePBX 2.11

Our experience suggests that the only trade off with this new approach is the inability to receive anonymous SIP calls… a small price to pay considering the potential financial and computer risks involved. You still can place outbound VoIP calls as well as placing and receiving calls using any of the phone numbers registered on your new PBX in a Flash server. And, thanks to Google Voice, SIPgate, and IPkall, all inbound calls are free, and all outbound calls to numbers in the U.S. and Canada are free as well.

If a SIP URI and your own Freenum/ISN number are simply features you can’t live without, sign up for a voip.ms IAX account, and you’ll get a SIP URI for free. Inbound SIP URI and Freenum/ISN calls will set you back $1 for every 1,000 minutes billed in 6 second increments.

Or you can sign up for a free IP Freedom CallCentric account and configure a new SIP trunk in FreePBX by following these directions. Once configured, your new server SIP URI will be 1777xxxxxxx@in.callcentric.com where xxxxxxx is your assigned 7-digit CallCentric number.

Keep in mind that a new security vulnerability has been found with either Asterisk or FreePBX almost monthly. The chart below tells you why. With virtually limitless attack surfaces because of the number of interrelated components in CentOS, Asterisk, and FreePBX comes enormous and recurring potential for remote compromise of these systems. Rather than play this cat-and-mouse security game with the underworld, the Orgasmatron design changes the paradigm. It lets you use any (secure or insecure) version of Asterisk and FreePBX without worrying about any outside attacks. Do passwords on your new server matter? Not really… unless there is someone inside your firewall that you don’t trust. 🙄 Are we going to secure them anyway? Absolutely. But instead of the constant worry over new security vulnerabilities, Orgasmatron 5.2 lets you enjoy exploring the world of Asterisk and VoIP telephony with an incredibly rich feature set that you won’t find anywhere else, period! We’ll resist making any other device analogies, but the idea here is to protect the good guy (you!) while keeping the bad guys out. No penetration. No worries. Simple as that.

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In our former life working for a living, we actually procured and managed multimillion dollar PBXs as part of our "other duties as assigned." Without qualification, we can tell you that the feature set that Orgasmatron 5.2 brings to the table for free runs circles around anything you could buy (then or now) in the commercial marketplace. And, at one time or another, we purchased every Nortel feature good money could buy. There’s one other difference. Orgasmatron 5.2 runs swimmingly on a $200 Atom-based PC that you can purchase at any Best Buy as well as hundreds of other stores including Amazon, NewEgg, and Buy.com. We paid more than $200 to provision an additional extension on our Nortel switch! You, of course, can add as many extensions as you like. De nada.

So, why a new version of Orgasmatron in only a few weeks? Well, it’s not security-related. In fact, there is nothing wrong with continuing on with Orgasmatron 5.1. Unfortunately, it relied exclusively upon SIPgate to make free Google Voice calls in the U.S. and Canada. And SIPgate required an invite using an SMS message from a U.S.-based cellphone. That pretty well knocked out all of our friends living outside the United States. Today’s version fixes that by letting anyone sign up for a free IPkall phone number in Washington state. All you need is a valid email address. The setup process is a bit more complex because IPkall doesn’t support registered connections to their servers. But we’ll walk you through the additional steps and, once completed, your server will be just as secure as the SIPgate approach we set up with Orgasmatron 5.1. And few, if any, Linux skills are required to set up or manage Orgasmatron 5.2. As we’ve noted previously, if you can handle slice and bake cookies, you’ve got the necessary skillset! Be aware this is about a one-hour project, and you need to track through the article carefully, or the entire house of cards comes down.

blankNew Asterisk Security Model. Orgasmatron 5.2 maintains our design goal of running an absolutely secure Asterisk PBX from behind a hardware-based firewall with either NO INBOUND PORTS exposed to the Internet with SIPgate or an IP-address-restricted IAX port for IPkall. Don’t defeat this security mechanism by exposing additional ports on your PBX in a Flash server to Internet access. And choose your NAT-based firewall/router carefully. All of these devices are not created equally. Not only do some perform better than others, but certain models are notoriously bad at handling NAT-based routing tasks, a critical requirement in the Asterisk VoIP environment. In almost every case of problems with one-way audio, the real culprit can be traced back to a crappy router. For $35, you really can’t go wrong with the dLink WBR-2310. If you want traffic shaping functionality as well, take a look at dLink’s Gaming Router, our personal favorite.

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As long as your router, Google Voice, SIPgate, and IPkall passwords are secure, you can sleep like a baby. We use an intermediate SIP provider for Google Voice to set up free outbound Google Voice calls in the U.S. and Canada because Google Voice actually places two calls to connect you to your destination. First, you get a call back. And then the party you’re calling is connected. The SIPgate or IPkall trunk is used by Google Voice to call you back so the inbound call is always free. We handle the interconnection magic with Asterisk transparently so your calls appear to be processed as if you were using a standard telephone to dial out. Just refrain from using extension 75 in Asterisk for personal conferencing!

The choice is yours. You can use SIPgate with no incoming ports exposed to your server from the Internet. Or you can use IPkall and map UDP port 4569 (IAX2) on your hardware-based firewall to the internal IP address of your new PBX in a Flash server. Even with the IPkall setup, we’ve locked down IPtables (our Linux firewall) to restrict IAX access to several specific IP addresses so your server remains absolutely secure. We’ve also included support for FonicaTec’s IAX offering for those that want a backup IAX provider. We’ll have much more to say about IPtables in coming weeks.

If you’ve already installed Orgasmatron 5.1 and it’s working for you, do you need to upgrade? NO. With the exception of the new IAX support for IPkall, the code in Orgasmatron 5.2 is identical.

We, of course, continue to recommend that you sign up with Vitelity so you have an alternate communications vehicle in the event of a problem with your free service. Vitelity also can provide 911 emergency service for your home or home office. You can save a little money while supporting the PBX in a Flash project by using the links at the end of this article.

blankSwiss Army Knife Inventory. There’s no need for a Swiss Army Knife if you don’t know what all the blades are for. So, for those that are wondering what’s included in the Orgasmatron 5.2 build, here’s a feature list of the components you get in addition to the base PBX in a Flash build with CentOS 5.4, Asterisk 1.4, FreePBX 2.6, and Apache, SendMail, MySQL, PHP, phpMyAdmin, IPtables Linux firewall, Fail2Ban, and WebMin. Please note that A2Billing, Cepstral TTS, Hamachi VPN, and Mondo Backups are optional and may be installed using the scripts that are provided.

Prerequisites. Here’s what you’ll need to get started:

  • Broadband Internet connection
  • Rock-solid NAT router/firewall. Recommend: $35 dLink WBR-2310
  • $200 PC on which to run PBX in a Flash or a Proxmox Virtual Machine
  • Free Google Voice account (HINT: Under $2 on eBay)
  • Free SIPgateOne residential account (Use cell to get SMS invite) OR
  • Free IPkall IAX account

Learn First. Install Second. Even though the installation process is now a No-Brainer, you are well-advised to do some reading before you begin. VoIP PBX systems have become a favorite target of the hackers and crackers around the world and, unless you have an unlimited bank account, you need to take some time learning where the minefields are in today’s VoIP world. Start by reading our Primer on Asterisk Security. Then read our PBX in a Flash and VPN in a Flash knols. If you’re still not asleep, there’s loads of additional documentation on the PBX in a Flash documentation web site.

Today’s Drill. The installation process is straight-forward, but a little different than the Orgasmo 5.1 scenario because of the need to accommodate IPkall. Just don’t skip any steps. In a nutshell, here are the 6 Steps to Free Calling and an incredibly versatile, preconfigured Asterisk PBX:

1. Install the latest version of PBX in a Flash
2. Run the Orgasmatron 5.2 Installer
3. Configure a softphone or SIP telephone
4. Configure Providers for Orgasmatron 5.2
5. Enter your Google Voice and SIPgate/IPkall credentials
6. Change existing passwords to secure your system

blankInstalling PBX in a Flash. Here’s a quick tutorial to get PBX in a Flash installed. We recommend you install the latest PIAF 1.6 beta on a new Atom-based PC. This beta is virtually identical to version 1.4 except it uses CentOS 5.4 instead of CentOS 5.2. This means it works better with newer hardware including Atom-based computers and newer network cards. Unlike other Asterisk aggregations, PBX in a Flash utilizes a two-step install process. The ISO only installs the CentOS operating system. Once installed, the server reboots and downloads a payload file that includes Asterisk, FreePBX, and many other VoIP and Linux utilities. We use the identical payload for versions 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, and 1.6 of PBX in a Flash. The beta label simply means we haven’t had time to sufficiently test CentOS. But this is not a Microsoft-style beta so fear not!

Download the 32-bit, PIAF 1.6 version from SourceForge, Vitelity, Cybernetic Networks, or AdHoc Electronics. The MD5 checksum for the file is e8a3fc96702d8aa9ecbd2a8afb934d36. Burn the ISO to a CD. Then boot from the installation CD and type ksalt to begin.

WARNING: This install will completely erase, repartition, and reformat ALL disks on your system! Press Ctrl-C to cancel the install.

On some systems you may get a notice that CentOS can’t find the kickstart file. Just tab to OK and press Enter. Don’t change the name or location of the kickstart file! This will get you going. Think of it as a CentOS ‘feature’. 🙂

At the keyboard prompt, tab to OK and press Enter. At the time zone prompt, tab once, highlight your time zone, tab to OK and press Enter. At the password prompt, make up a VERY secure root password. Type it twice. Tab to OK, press Enter. Get a cup of coffee. Come back in about 5 minutes. When the system has installed CentOS, it will reboot. Remove the CD promptly. After the reboot, choose A option. Have a 10-minute cup of coffee. After installation is complete, the machine will reboot a second time. Log in as root with your new password and execute the following commands:

update-scripts
update-fixes

When prompted, change the ARI password to something really obscure. You’re never going to use it! You now have a PBX in a Flash base install. On a stand-alone machine, it takes about 30 minutes. On a virtual machine, it takes about half that time.

NOTE: So long as your system is safely sitting behind a hardware-based firewall, we do NOT recommend running update-source on the Orgasmatron builds because of parking lot issues in the latest releases of Asterisk.

Running the Orgasmatron 5.2 Installer. Log into your server as root and issue the following commands to run the Orgasmatron 5.2 installer:

cd /root
wget http://pbxinaflash.net/orgasmo52.x
chmod +x orgasmo52.x
./orgasmo52.x

Have another 15-minute cup of coffee. It’s a great time to consider a modest donation to the Nerd Vittles project. You’ll find a link at the top of the page. When the installer finishes, READ THE SCREEN!

Now run passwd-master1. Set your FreePBX passwords to something very secure but different from your Linux root password.

Next, type status2 and press Enter. Write down the IP address of your new server.

If you’re using IPkall, now’s the time to log in to your hardware-based firewall/router and map UDP port 45693 to the private IP address that you just wrote down. This tells your firewall to pass all IAX2 traffic from the Internet directly to your new server. Don’t worry. We have severely restricted which IP addresses can actually send IAX data through the PBX in a Flash IPtables firewall which is an integral part of this build. And, remember, no hardware firewall adjustments are necessary if you’re using SIPgate instead of IPkall.

For good measure, we recommend you reboot your server at this point. The command to type is simple: reboot4

blankConfiguring a SIP Phone. There are hundreds of terrific SIP telephones and softphones for Asterisk-based systems. Once you get things humming along, you’ll want a real SIP telephone, and you’ll find lots of recommendations on Nerd Vittles. For today, let’s download a terrific (free) softphone to get you started. We recommend X-Lite because there are versions for Windows, Mac, and Linux. So download your favorite from this link. Install and run X-Lite on your Desktop. At the top of the phone, click on the Down Arrow and choose SIP Account Settings, Add. Enter the following information using 82812661 as the password for extension 701 and the actual IP address of your PBX in a Flash server instead of 192.168.0.251. Click OK when finished. Your softphone should now show: Available.

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blankDon’t Forget! After you change your extension passwords later in this tutorial, you will need to update the password entry in X-Lite, or you will no longer be able to place calls! In fact, you will get locked out of your server for 90 minutes after three failed password attempts. So put this on a sticky note so you don’t forget, or you’ll regret it in about 15 minutes.

Either a free SIPgate One residential phone number or an IPkall number is a key component in today’s project. And there’s really no reason you can’t use both if they’re available in your location. Do NOT use special characters in your provider passwords, or nothing will work! Continue reading whichever section below applies to you.

blankConfiguring SIPgate. If you live in the U.S. and have a cellphone, we’d recommend the SIPgate option since no adjustment of your hardware-based firewall is required. Otherwise, skip to the IPkall setup below. Step #1 is to request a SIPgate invite at this link. You’ll need to enter your U.S. cellphone number to receive the SMS message with your invitation code. Don’t worry. You can erase your cellphone number from your account once it is set up. Once you receive the invite code, enter it and choose the option to set up a residential account. Next, choose a phone number and write it down. The area code really doesn’t matter because Google Voice is the only one that will be calling this number after we get things set up. For now, leave your cellphone number in place so that you can receive your confirmation call from Google Voice in the next step. After that, you’ll want to revisit SIPgate and remove all parallel calling numbers. Finally, click on the Settings link and write down your SIP ID and SIP Password. You’ll need these in a few minutes to configure PBX in a Flash. Now place a call to your new SIPgate number and make certain that your cellphone rings before proceeding.

blankConfiguring IPkall. If you’ve opted to use IPkall, here’s the drill. First, you’ll need to register for a free IPkall number. This is actually a two-step process. Set it up as a SIP connection when you first register. Then we’ll change it to IAX once your new phone number is provided. So your initial IPkall request should look like this:

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We recommend area code 425 for your requested number because IPkall appears to have lots of them. If they don’t have an available number, your request apparently goes in the bit bucket. You’ll know because IPkall typically turns these requests around in a few minutes. Don’t worry about the mothership entry. We’ll change it shortly. The other issue here is your public IP address. If you have a dedicated IP address, no worries. Just plug in the IP address for SIP Proxy. If it’s dynamic, then you’ll need to set up a fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) with a provider such as dyndns.com. Once you’ve got it set up, enter your credentials in the Dynamic DNS tab of your hardware-based firewall to assure that your dynamic IP address is always synchronized with your FQDN. Then enter the FQDN for your SIP Proxy address in the IPkall form. Be sure to make up a VERY secure password. Now send it off and wait for the return email with your new phone number.

When you receive your new phone number, you’ll need to revisit the IPkall site and log in with your phone number and the password you chose above. Make the changes shown below using your actual IPkall phone number instead of 4259876543:

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It’s worth stressing that these settings are extremely important so check your work carefully. Be sure the IAX option is selected. Be sure there are no typos in your two phone number entries. And be sure your FQDN or public IP address is correct. Then save your new settings.

We’re going to be making some entries in FreePBX which is the web-GUI that manages PBX in a Flash. For now, we simply need to enter your new IPkall phone number so that incoming calls to your IPkall number will actually ring on your softphone. Later, we’ll make some further adjustments once we get Google Voice humming along.

Using a web browser from your desktop, log in to FreePBX 2.6 at the following link substituting your server’s private IP address for ipaddress: http://ipaddress/admin. You’ll be prompted for a user name (maint) and password (the one you just created with passwd-master).

When FreePBX loads, choose Setup, Trunks, ipkall (iax). In the USER Context field, enter your 10-digit IPkall phone number. Click Submit Changes, Apply Configuration Changes, Continue with Reload to save your settings.

TIP: Be aware that IPkall cancels an assigned phone number after 30 consecutive days of inactivity. If you will be using your number infrequently, it’s a good idea to schedule a Weekly Reminder to call the number with a prerecorded message. This will assure that your number stays functional.

Now let’s test your new phone number. Call your IPkall number from a cellphone or some other phone. Your softphone should ring. Answer the call, and be sure you have voice in both directions! Do not proceed without success here, or the rest of the adventure is a waste of your time.

blankConfiguring Google Voice. Google Voice still is by invitation only so the first thing you’ll need is an invite. If you’re in a hurry, then stroll over to eBay where you’ll find lots of them for under $2. Once you have your invite in hand, click on the email link to set up your account. After you’ve chosen a telephone number, plug in your new SIPgate or IPkall number as the destination for your Google Voice calls and choose Office as the Phone Type. Trust us.

Google then will place a call to your number and ask you to enter a confirmation code that’s been provided. When your cellphone (SIPgate) or softphone (IPkall) rings, answer it and punch in the number. Wait for confirmation. Then hang up.

As we mentioned earlier, there’s no reason you can’t set up both SIPgate and IPkall forwarding numbers in Google Voice. Just repeat the drill with the other provider’s number if you wish to activate both numbers for use with Google Voice. They’re not both going to ring simultaneously as you will see in a minute.

While you’re still in Google Voice Settings, click on the Calls tab. Make sure your settings match these:

  • Call Screening – OFF
  • Call Presentation – OFF
  • Caller ID (In) – Display Caller’s Number
  • Caller ID (Out) – Don’t Change Anything
  • Do Not Disturb – OFF

Click Save Changes once you adjust your settings. Under the Voicemail tab, plug in your email address so you get notified of new voicemails. Down the road, receipt of a Google Voice voicemail will be a big hint that something has come unglued on your PBX.

Finally, place a test call to your new Google Voice number and be sure your cellphone or softphone rings. Don’t move forward until you’ve been able to successfully place a call to your phone by dialing your Google Voice number. Once this is working, revisit SIPgate and remove all parallel calling numbers including your cell number.

blankAdding Your Credentials to PBX in a Flash. We’re ready to insert your Google Voice credentials and SIPgate/IPkall number into PBX in a Flash. You’ll need four pieces of information: your 10-digit Google Voice phone number, your Google Voice account name (which is the email address you used to set up your GV account), your GV password (no spaces!), and your 11-digit SIPgate or IPkall RingBack DID (beginning with a 1). Don’t get the 10-digit GV number mixed up with the 11-digit SIPgate/IPkall RingBack DID, or nothing will work. 🙂

Log back into your server as root and issue the following command: ./configure-gv. Check your entries carefully. If you make a typo in entering any of your data, press Ctrl-C to cancel the script and then run it again!!

blankConfiguring FreePBX. Now shift back to your Desktop and, using a web browser, log in to FreePBX 2.6 at the following link substituting your actual IP address for ipaddress: http://ipaddress/admin. You’ll be prompted for a user name (maint) and password (the one you just created with passwd-master). Depending upon which intermediate provider you’re using, do the following:

SIPgate Setup. When FreePBX loads, choose Setup, Trunks, sipgate. In Peer Details, replace both instances of sipID with your actual SipGate SIP ID. In Peer Details, replace sipPassword with your actual SipGate SIP Password. In Register String, replace sipID with your SipGate SIP ID, replace sipPassword with your SipGate SIP Password, and replace 3333333333 with your 10-digit SipGate Phone Number. When finished, the Register String should look something like the following:

7004484f0:B8TTW3@sipgate.com/4155201234

Click Submit, Apply Configuration Changes, Continue with Reload to save your changes.

SIPgate and IPkall Setup. While still in FreePBX with your browser, click Setup, Inbound Routes, gv-ringback. In DID Number, replace 3333333333 with your 10-digit SIPGate or IPkall Phone Number. In CallerID Number, replace 7777777777 with your 10-digit Google Voice Number.

Click Submit, Apply Configuration Changes, Continue with Reload to save your changes.

blankSecuring FreePBX. You’re almost done. While still in FreePBX, choose each of the 16 preconfigured extensions on your new server and change the extension AND voicemail passwords. Here’s the drill: Setup, Extensions, 501, Submit. After changing secret and Voicemail Password, repeat with the next extension number instead of 501. Then Apply Config Changes, Continue when you’ve finished with all of them.

Now change the default DISA password: Setup, DISA, DISAmain, PIN, Submit Changes, Apply Config Changes, Continue.

Don’t forget to adjust your X-Lite password to match the password entry you made for extension 701!

blankOrgasmatron Test Flight. The proof is in the pudding as they say. So let’s try two simple tests. First, from another phone, call your Google Voice number. Your softphone should begin ringing shortly. Answer the call and make sure you can send and receive voice on both phones. Hang up. Now let’s place an outbound call. Using the softphone, dial your cellphone number. Google Voice should transparently connect you. Answer the call and make sure you can send and receive voice on both phones. If everything is working, congratulations!

blankSolving One-Way Audio Problems. If you experience one-way audio on some of your phone calls, you may need to adjust the settings in /etc/asterisk/sip_custom.conf. Just uncomment the first two lines by removing the semicolons. Then replace 173.15.238.123 with your public IP address, and replace 192.168.0.0 with the subnet address of your private network. Save the file and restart Asterisk with the command: amportal restart.

blankChoosing a VoIP Provider. For this week, we’ll point you to some things to play with on your new server. Then, in the subsequent articles below, we’ll cover in detail how to customize every application that’s been loaded. Nothing beats free when it comes to long distance calls. But nothing lasts forever. So we’d recommend you set up another account with Vitelity using our special link below. This gives your PBX a secondary way to communicate with every telephone in the world, and it also gets you a second real phone number for your new system… so that people can call you. Here’s how it works. You pay Vitelity a deposit for phone service. They then will bill you $3.99 a month for your new phone number. This $3.99 also covers the cost of unlimited inbound calls (two at a time) delivered to your PBX for the month. For outbound calls, you pay by the minute and the cost is determined by where you’re calling. If you’re in the U.S., outbound calls to anywhere in the U.S. are a little over a penny a minute. If you change your mind about Vitelity and want a refund of the balance in your account, all you have to do is ask.

The VoIP world is new territory for some of you. Unlike the Ma Bell days, there’s really no reason not to have multiple VoIP providers especially for outbound calls. Depending upon where you are calling, calls may be cheaper using different providers for calls to different locations. So we recommend having at least two providers. Visit the PBX in a Flash Forum to get some ideas on choosing alternative providers.

Kicking the Tires. OK. That’s enough tutorial for today. Let’s play. Using your new softphone, begin your adventure by dialing these extensions:

  • D-E-M-O – Nerd Vittles Orgasmatron Demo (running on your PBX)
  • 1234*1061 – Nerd Vittles Demo via ISN FreeNum connection to NV
  • 17476009082*1089 – Nerd Vittles Demo via ISN to Google/Gizmo5
  • Z-I-P – Enter a five digit zip code for any U.S. weather report
  • 6-1-1 – Enter a 3-character airport code for any U.S. weather report
  • 5-1-1 – Get the latest news and sports headlines from Yahoo News
  • T-I-D-E – Get today’s tides and lunar schedule for any U.S. port
  • F-A-X – Send a fax to an email address of your choice
  • 4-1-2 – 3-character phonebook lookup/dialer with AsteriDex
  • M-A-I-L – Record a message and deliver it to any email address
  • C-O-N-F – Set up a MeetMe Conference on the fly
  • 1-2-3 – Schedule regular/recurring reminder (PW: 12345678)
  • 2-2-2 – ODBC/Timeclock Lookup Demo (Empl No: 12345)
  • 2-2-3 – ODBC/AsteriDex Lookup Demo (Code: AME)
  • Dial *68 – Schedule a hotel-style wakeup call from any extension
  • 1061*1061 – PBX in a Flash Support Conference Bridge
  • 882*1061 – VoIP Users Conference every Friday at Noon (EST)


Click above. Enter your name and phone number. Press Connect to begin the call.

blankHomework. Your homework for this week is to do some exploring. FreePBX is a treasure trove of functionality, and the Orgasmatron build adds a bunch of additional options. See if you can find all of them. For starters, you’ll want to activate CallerID Lookups in FreePBX. Choose Setup, CID Superfecta, Default and enter the maint password you created with passwd-master. Then choose Tools, Module Administration, CallerID Lookup, Enable, Process and Save the Settings. Then edit each of the Inbound Routes and choose CallerID Superfecta as the CID Lookup Source. Save your changes. Finally, choose Setup, CallerID Lookup Sources, CallerID Superfecta and be sure your maint password created with passwd-master is correct here, too. If not, update it. For additional tips, visit the forums.

blankBe sure to log into your server as root and look through the scripts added in the /root/nv folder. You’ll find all sorts of goodies to keep you busy. s3cmd.faq tells you how to quickly activate the Amazon S3 Cloud Computing service. And, if you’ve heeded our advice and purchased a PogoPlug, you can link to your home-grown cloud. Just add your credentials to /root/pogo-start.sh. Then run the script to enable the PogoPlug Cloud on your server. All of your cloud resources are instantly accessible in /mnt/pogoplug. It’s also perfect for off-site backups!

blankAlso check out Tweet2Dial which lets you use Twitter to make Google Voice calls, send free SMS messages, and manage your new Asterisk server. Don’t forget to List Yourself in Directory Assistance so everyone can find you by dialing 411. And add your new number to the Do Not Call Registry to block telemarketing calls. Or just call 888-382-1222 from your new number. Finally, try out the included Stealth AutoAttendant by dialing your own number and pressing 0 while the greeting is played. This will reroute your call to the demo applications option in the IVR.

Continue reading Part II.

Continue reading Part III.

Continue reading Part IV.

blankSupport Issues. With any application as sophisticated as this one, you’re bound to have questions. Blog comments are a terrible place to handle support issues although we welcome general comments about our articles and software. If you have particular support issues, we encourage you to get actively involved in the PBX in a Flash Forums. It’s the best Asterisk tech support site in the business, and it’s all free! We maintain a thread with the latest Patches for Orgasmatron 5.1 and 5.2. Please have a look. Unlike some forums, ours is extremely friendly and is supported by literally hundreds of Asterisk gurus and thousands of ordinary users just like you. So you won’t have to wait long for an answer to your questions.

Coming Attractions. In our next episode, we’ll walk you through the process of adding a second, third, fourth, and fifth Google Voice line to your server so that you’ll never run out of free calling on your server. Enjoy!

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Need help with Asterisk? Visit the PBX in a Flash Forum.
Or Try the New, Free PBX in a Flash Conference Bridge.

whos.amung.us If you’re wondering what your fellow man is reading on Nerd Vittles these days, wonder no more. Visit our new whos.amung.us statistical web site and check out what’s happening. It’s a terrific resource both for us and for you.

 

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FULL DISCLOSURE: ClearlyIP, Skyetel, Vitelity, DigitalOcean, Vultr, VoIP.ms, 3CX, Sangoma, TelecomsXchange and VitalPBX have provided financial support to Nerd Vittles and our open source projects through advertising, referral revenue, and/or merchandise. As an Amazon Associate and Best Buy Affiliate, we also earn from qualifying purchases. We’ve chosen these providers not the other way around. Our decisions are based upon their corporate reputation and the quality of their offerings and pricing. Our recommendations regarding technology are reached without regard to financial compensation except in situations in which comparable products at comparable pricing are available from multiple sources. In this limited case, we support our sponsors because our sponsors support us.

blankBOGO Bonaza: Enjoy state-of-the-art VoIP service with a $10 credit and half-price SIP service on up to $500 of Skyetel trunking with free number porting when you fund your Skyetel account. No limits on number of simultaneous calls. Quadruple data center redundancy. $25 monthly minimum spend required. Tutorial and sign up details are here.

blankThe lynchpin of Incredible PBX 2020 and beyond is ClearlyIP components which bring management of FreePBX modules and SIP phone integration to a level never before available with any other Asterisk distribution. And now you can configure and reconfigure your new Incredible PBX phones from the convenience of the Incredible PBX GUI.

blankVitalPBX is perhaps the fastest-growing PBX offering based upon Asterisk with an installed presence in more than 100 countries worldwide. VitalPBX has generously provided a customized White Label version of Incredible PBX tailored for use with all Incredible PBX and VitalPBX custom applications. Follow this link for a free test drive!
 

blankSpecial Thanks to Vitelity. Vitelity is now Voyant Communications and has halted new registrations for the time being. Our special thanks to Vitelity for their unwavering financial support over many years and to the many Nerd Vittles readers who continue to enjoy the benefits of their service offerings. We will keep everyone posted on further developments.
 

Some Recent Nerd Vittles Articles of Interest…

  1. passwd-master is the PIAF utility for setting a master password for FreePBX access with the maint user account. [↩]
  2. status is the PIAF utility program that displays the current status of most major applications running on your server. [↩]
  3. Mapping a port on your firewall to a private IP address unblocks certain Internet packets and allows them to pass through your firewall directly to an IP device "inside" your firewall for further processing. [↩]
  4. reboot is the Linux command for restarting your server. It’s functionally equivalent to shutdown -r now. [↩]

Avoiding the $100,000 Phone Bill: A Primer on Asterisk Security

Tuesday, January 27, 2009 / 18 Comments on Avoiding the $100,000 Phone Bill: A Primer on Asterisk Security

blankHere's a headline to wake up any CEO: "Small business gets $120,000 phone bill after hackers attack VoIP phone." News.com.au actually ran this story on January 20. "Criminals hacked into an Internet phone system and used it to make 11,000 international calls in just 46 hours... 115,000 international mobile calls were made using the small business's VoIP system over a six month period."

News Flash: Be sure to read our latest article introducing Travelin' Man 3, a completely new security methodology based upon FQDN Whitelists and DDNS. In a nutshell, you get set-it-and-forget-it convenience and rock-solid VoIP security for your Cloud-based PBX or any PBX in a Flash server that's lacking a hardware-based firewall and you get both transparent connectivity and security for your mobile or remote workforce.

For the latest Security Tips: See our most recent article.

Sad to say that folks install VoIP phone systems to save money and then completely ignore tried-and-true network security principles: hardening your system, regularly watching your logs, and periodically changing your passwords. If PBX in a Flash were a commercial offering, we'd probably keep much of what follows to ourselves and start touting our PBX systems as the only Asterisk® offering with Secure-Wrapâ„¢. That's not our world, of course, nor is it what open source is all about... which turns out to be both a blessing and a curse. We openly and jointly figure out ways to secure our Asterisk systems as well as those of our competitors. Then the bad guys get to read all about it and come up with new, more creative "solutions." The silver lining is there are millions of insecure Asterisk systems so the creeps typically move on to easier targets.

Today we'll walk you through our Top Ten Security Tips and Tricks. All of these can be implemented easily to harden your Asterisk PBX and lessen the chances of the bad guys transforming your VoIP system into a free, international payphone: you pay, they phone. In the process, we'll identify some common security blunders that accompany new system installs in hopes that you won't make the same mistakes. So let's start with the basics. If you plug your Asterisk PBX directly into the public Internet without carefully securing it, your chances of being hacked within the hour are pretty good.

Rule #1: Protect Your PBX With IPtables. PBX in a Flash systems are delivered with the IPtables firewall enabled. Leave it that way! If your Asterisk implementation doesn't have IPtables support, demand that it be added immediately or ask for assistance in adding it yourself. There is no reason not to use a freely available, open source firewall, period! And there are many good tools including WebMin (also included in PBX in a Flash distributions) to get it configured properly. With PBX in a Flash, all of the grunt work has been done for you.

Firewalls, of course, are only as good as the set of rules defined to secure your system. So only activate ports that are absolutely essential to run your PBX. For an excellent review of the ports that are opened by default in PBX in a Flash systems, see Joe Roper's summary. Think of an activated port as a hole in the dike. The more holes you add, the less secure your PBX will be. We'll leave it to you to count the holes in the dike if you choose to run your PBX without IPtables enabled. Our rule of thumb for PBX security goes something like this. If you don't need web access to your PBX, don't open ports 80 and 9080. If you don't need SSH, FTP, FOP, or WebMin access to your PBX, don't enable those ports. Better yet, don't even turn those services on unless there is a pressing need.

All of the IPtables rules are stored in /etc/sysconfig/iptables. Don't edit this file unless you know what you're doing. If you need help with the rules, post a question on the PBX in a Flash Forum. Typical response time on posted questions is under an hour on our forum. And don't forget to restart IPtables if you make changes to any of the rules: service iptables restart.

Rule #2: Protect Your PBX With A Hardware-Based Firewall. If one firewall is good protection, two firewalls are even better. As much as NAT-based firewall/routers get a bad rap, the extra layer of protection that a $50 hardware-based firewall/router delivers cannot be overstressed. Think of the software-based firewall as the tool of choice to secure your PBX on your internal LAN while the hardware-based firewall secures your system on the public Internet. We recommend the dLink WBR-2310 for home and SOHO use. It provides a reliable NAT-based router, a firewall, and excellent WiFi capability for under $50. If you've got some spare change, step up to one of dLink's Gaming Routers which we happen to use. They provide all the tools you'll need to prioritize your VoIP traffic. As with Rule #1, only open and redirect ports that are absolutely essential to use your PBX.

Rule #3: Safeguard Against Random Password Hacks. There is no better tool to protect your PBX from random password attacks than Fail2Ban 0.8.3. Fail2ban scans log files and bans IP addresses that make repeated, unsuccessful password attempts. It updates IPtables rules to reject those IP addresses for a period of time that you can set in /etc/fail2ban/jail.conf. Originally PBX in a Flash systems were shipped with an earlier version of Fail2Ban that provided only minimal protection. If your system doesn't include the jail.conf file above, you still have the older version. Simply run our update script to get the current release:

cd /root
mkdir fail2ban
cd fail2ban
wget http://pbxinaflash.net/source/fail2ban/fail2ban-update
chmod +x fail2ban-update
./fail2ban-update
service fail2ban restart

As was true with IPtables, Fail2Ban is only as good as the rules which are defined to identify failed password attempts on your system. On PBX in a Flash systems, we now protect against web, FTP, SSH, SIP, and IAX password attempts.

If your particular Asterisk implementation lacks Fail2Ban support, you're missing a critically important (free) tool to safeguard your system from random password attacks against SSH and your protected web sites as well as your SIP and IAX extension passwords. For tips on installation, review our script that is available on this thread in the PBX in a Flash Forum.

Rule #4: Narrow Access With IP Address Restrictions. Security privileges in the U.S. government are based upon a "need to know." It's pretty simple. If you don't have a need to know the information to perform your duties, you don't get the privilege. You can use a similar technique to secure your PBX by implementing IP address restrictions. For example, if all of your extensions are housed on a private subnet of your internal LAN, then there is no reason to allow Internet access to those extensions. Similarly, for extensions outside your local network, you now can hardcode the IP address into the extension to restrict access. To implement this with Asterisk and FreePBX-based systems, you'll first need to upgrade FreePBX to at least version 2.5.1.1. Once you've upgraded, go into each extension and enter either an IP address or an IP subnet for that extension in the permit field. For an IP address, the syntax is 192.168.0.44/255.255.255.255. For an IP subnet, the syntax would look like this: 192.168.0.0/255.255.255.0. This one tip would have been worth $120,000 to the Australian company referenced above. Yes, consultants can be worth their weight in gold. 🙂

If you're as absent-minded as we are, you don't want to have to worry about remembering this each time you add a new extension to your system. So it's quite simple to change the default permit entry from 0.0.0.0/0.0.0.0 to the subnet mask of your LAN. Then you only have to adjust this entry whenever you add an extension which is not on your internal LAN. For example, if your LAN subnet is 192.168.0, then we want to replace the default entry with 192.168.0.0/255.255.255.0. The file to edit is /var/www/html/admin/modules/core/functions.inc.php. Just search for $tmparr['permit'] in BOTH the iax2 and sip sections of the file and make the value substitution preserving the single quotes on both sides of your new entries.

You also can implement both password and IP address restrictions to limit web access to your server. With Apache web servers, this is done through .htaccess files and directory restrictions in your Apache config files. On PBX in a Flash systems, htaccess password restrictions now are the default setup in all of our builds. Suffice it to say, if you can access the /admin directory on your web site from the Internet without being prompted for a password, your site probably has been compromised. Keep in mind that these passwords get cached so be sure you have cleaned out your browser cache before having a heart attack. Better yet, try this from a browser you don't ordinarily use (such as the one on your cellphone).

For additional security, you can further restrict access to your web directories by adding a list of authorized IP addresses to the .htaccess file in each subdirectory. Here's what an .htaccess file with IP address restrictions might look like. The first Allow entry is the private LAN subnet, the second is a remote site, and the third is the Hamachi VPN subnet mask:

Deny from All
Allow from 192.168.0
Allow from 68.218.222.70
Allow from 5.67

Rule #5: Don't Use 'Normal Ports' for Internet Access. Think of network and PBX security as a shell game. You want to do as many things differently as possible to make it as difficult as possible for the bad guys to figure out what you've done. Read that last sentence again. It's important! With a hardware-based firewall such as the WBR-2310, this is incredibly easy. dLink calls them Virtual Servers. Here is a typical entry:

HTTP   192.168.0.150   TCP 80/2319   Allow All   Always

You can simply redirect common ports to different ports for Internet access. Don't do this for SIP and IAX ports, but it works great for HTTP, FTP, and SSH access. For example, port 80 typically is the default web server port on Asterisk aggregations, and this port normally can be used on your internal LAN assuming you know and trust your users. For external (aka Internet) web access, simply remap TCP port 80 to some obscure port and change it periodically. For example, you might redirect TCP port 80 to port 2319. Once the setting is saved, you access the web site with a browser entry like this: http://pbx.mydomain.com:2319/. Then (and just as important!) next month, change the port to 4382, then 6109, and so on. Don't use these numbers obviously! Make up your own. The key here is that 5 minutes work every month will keep web access to your PBX much more secure than letting every Tom, Dick, and Ivan hammer away at port 80 every night while you're sleeping. Incidentally, most of these routers also will let you block access to certain ports during certain hours of the day. If you're sleeping, there's really not much need to provide SSH and web access to your Asterisk server. At the risk of being labeled xenophobic, keep in mind that many of the world's best crackers reside in countries where daytime happens to be nighttime in the United States.

Rule #6: Really Secure Passwords Really Do Matter. While we have no hard evidence to back this up, our wild-assed guess (WAG) is that 90% of the security breaches in Asterisk systems have been the direct result of folks using passwords that matched the extension numbers on their phone systems. Since most Asterisk PBX systems are configured with extension numbers beginning in the 200, 700, or 800 range of numbers, it really wasn't Rocket Science to remotely log into these servers and make unlimited SIP telephone calls. The first five rules would have protected most Asterisk systems. But our WAG on the number of Asterisk PBX's that have implemented all five rules above would be less than one in a thousand. Part of that is because some of these tools weren't readily available until recently. But part of it is because most of us are just plain L-A-Z-Y.

Really secure passwords really do matter. And it's more than having a secure root password. All of your passwords need to be secure including those on your phone extensions and voicemail accounts unless you are absolutely certain that you have blocked all access to your system from everyone except trusted users. If you use DISA, make certain it has a really, really secure password. Part of having really secure passwords is regularly changing them. And our rule of thumb on Asterisk system passwords goes one step further. Never, ever use passwords on your PBX that you use for other important personal information (such as financial accounts). You've been warned. It's your phone bill and bank account!
<end of sermon>

Rule #7: Minimize Web Access To Your PBX. Most of the Asterisk aggregations utilize FreePBX as the graphical user interface to configure your Asterisk PBX. Because FreePBX is web-based, it is extremely dangerous to leave it exposed on the Internet. As much as we love FreePBX, keep in mind that it was written by dozens and dozens of contributors of various skill levels over a very long period of time. Spaghetti code doesn't begin to describe some of what lies under the FreePBX covers. Make absolutely certain that you have .htaccess password protection in place for all web directories in at least these directory trees: admin, maint, meetme, and panel.

Our rule of thumb on Internet web accessibility to an Asterisk PBX goes like this. Don't! But, if you must, build as many layers of protection as possible to assure that your system is not compromised. If the bad guys get into FreePBX, the security of your PBX has been compromised... permanently! This means you need to start over with all-new passwords by installing a fresh system. You simply cannot fix every possible hole that has been opened on a FreePBX-compromised system!

Rule #8: Implement VPNs for PBX Systems. PBX in a Flash has provided simple install scripts to deploy Hamachi VPNs on all of our current systems. Hopefully, the other aggregations will do likewise. In addition, we offer turnkey VPN in a Flash systems which provide this functionality out of the box. VPNs provide an incredibly simple way to interconnect PBX systems worldwide and assure secure communications between these interconnected systems. We now are exploring other VPN solutions which would facilitate the use of VPN-enabled telephones such as the new offerings from SNOM.

Rule #9: Check Your Logs Every Day. We're still dumbfounded by the following quote from the article above: "115,000 international mobile calls were made using the small business's VoIP system over a six month period." Six months and they never checked their call logs? Sounds like they earned this phone bill. FreePBX provides an incredibly simple way to review your call logs. Click the Reports tab at the top of the screen and look at the bar graph showing the number of calls each day and the combined length of those calls. Nothing could be easier. Do it every single day! It also should be noted that Ethan Schroeder has released a beta of some new monitoring software which will provide more granular monitoring of daily call volumes. For additional information or to participate in the beta, visit this link.

Rule #10: Do Some Reading... Regularly. No security implementation is complete without a little regular effort on your part: reading. If you're going to manage your own network or PBX, then you need to keep abreast of what's happening in the business. There are any number of ways to do this, none of which take much time. The simplest approach is just to scan the Open Discussion, Add-Ons, and Bug Reporting topics on the PBX in a Flash Forum, the trixbox Forum, and the FreePBX Forum. Aside from reviewing your call logs, it's the best 15 minutes you could spend to safeguard your system. We also have an RSS Feed which includes security alerts.

Update #1: Be sure to read this great new article. It has two fresh ideas for securing your system!

Update #2: Please also read this Nerd Vittles Alert about FreePBX backdoors and default passwords that was published on April 15, 2011.

Some Other Suggestions. A couple other suggestions come to mind that don't involve securing your PBX per se but nevertheless will lessen your exposure in the event of a security breach. First, if your usual calling patterns don't involve international calling or if they're limited to one or two countries, tighten up your outbound dialplan and restrict calling to countries that you actually need. It can always be changed when the need to call elsewhere arises. Second, if you use pay-as-you-go providers, never use credit card auto-replenishment. Instead, add funds periodically using the provider's web interface. The advantage of this is that, if someone does manage to break into your system, your loss will be limited to the current balance in your provider account. You'll not only save a lot of money, but you'll also get a notification that something has gone horribly wrong. Finally, a forum user mentioned one we had overlooked. If you have a mix of POTS and VoIP lines, don't put the POTS lines in the default outbound pool for toll calls. This could potentially save you lots of money.

Continue Reading Part II: The VoIP WhiteList for IPtables...

Got Some Other Ideas? 50,000 heads always are better than one when it comes to network security. If there are things we've missed, take a minute to post a comment. It'll help all of us keep our systems more secure. Good luck!

Digium® Weighs In. Since this article first appeared, Digium has released its own set of tips on SIP security. By all means, have a look!

Security Alert of the Week. A trixbox user yesterday reported that he had discovered a rootkit exploit on his server. You can could read all about it here. The 6:03 a.m. (California time) post mysteriously disappeared a few hours later... soon after the trixbox staff got to work. Another darn computer failure according to Fonality staff. 😕 We've attempted to recreate the information from Google snippets. And here's a simple test to see if you have a similar rootkit problem:

ls -all /sbin/init.zk

blankWant a Bootable PBX in a Flash Drive? Our bootable USB flash installer for PBX in a Flash will provide all of the goodies in the VPN in a Flash system featured last month on Nerd Vittles. You can build a complete turnkey system using almost any current generation PC with a SATA drive and our flash installer in less than 15 minutes!

If you'd like to put your name in the hat for a chance to win a free one delivered to your door, just post a comment with your best PBX in a Flash story.1

Be sure to include your real email address which will not be posted. The winner will be chosen by drawing an email address out of a hat (the old fashioned way!) from all of the comments posted over the next couple weeks. All of the individuals whose comments were used in today's story will automatically be included in the drawing as well. Good luck to everyone and Happy New Year!!

 

Special Thanks to Our Generous Sponsors


FULL DISCLOSURE: ClearlyIP, Skyetel, Vitelity, DigitalOcean, Vultr, VoIP.ms, 3CX, Sangoma, TelecomsXchange and VitalPBX have provided financial support to Nerd Vittles and our open source projects through advertising, referral revenue, and/or merchandise. As an Amazon Associate and Best Buy Affiliate, we also earn from qualifying purchases. We’ve chosen these providers not the other way around. Our decisions are based upon their corporate reputation and the quality of their offerings and pricing. Our recommendations regarding technology are reached without regard to financial compensation except in situations in which comparable products at comparable pricing are available from multiple sources. In this limited case, we support our sponsors because our sponsors support us.

blankBOGO Bonaza: Enjoy state-of-the-art VoIP service with a $10 credit and half-price SIP service on up to $500 of Skyetel trunking with free number porting when you fund your Skyetel account. No limits on number of simultaneous calls. Quadruple data center redundancy. $25 monthly minimum spend required. Tutorial and sign up details are here.

blankThe lynchpin of Incredible PBX 2020 and beyond is ClearlyIP components which bring management of FreePBX modules and SIP phone integration to a level never before available with any other Asterisk distribution. And now you can configure and reconfigure your new Incredible PBX phones from the convenience of the Incredible PBX GUI.

blankVitalPBX is perhaps the fastest-growing PBX offering based upon Asterisk with an installed presence in more than 100 countries worldwide. VitalPBX has generously provided a customized White Label version of Incredible PBX tailored for use with all Incredible PBX and VitalPBX custom applications. Follow this link for a free test drive!
 

blankSpecial Thanks to Vitelity. Vitelity is now Voyant Communications and has halted new registrations for the time being. Our special thanks to Vitelity for their unwavering financial support over many years and to the many Nerd Vittles readers who continue to enjoy the benefits of their service offerings. We will keep everyone posted on further developments.
 

Some Recent Nerd Vittles Articles of Interest...

  1. This offer does not extend to those in jurisdictions in which our offer or your participation may be regulated or prohibited by statute or regulation. [↩]

Asterisk 101: Some CallerID Tips & Tricks

Wednesday, June 25, 2008 / 9 Comments on Asterisk 101: Some CallerID Tips & Tricks

blankIf you're relatively new to Internet Telephony and VoIP, then it may come as a bit of a surprise when CallerID for incoming calls shows the phone number for both the name and number of the incoming caller or when names that popped up using your plain old telephone's CallerID service no longer do. The problem is that most telephone providers only deliver a CallerID number when sending calls. Thus it is left to your service provider to look up the incoming number in a directory and supply the matching name. To put it another way, CallerID numbers are pushed to recipients, but CallerID names must be pulled from in-house databases. With Ma Bell and siblings, this was easy because they had all of the records. With some Internet Telephony Hosting Providers, it's a different story. The reverse is also problematic. Even though you may provide a CallerID name and number, most telephone companies throw the supplied CallerID name in the bit bucket and do their own lookups. So... if you're not in their directory, your number or nothing will be supplied instead of your actual name. Just another last vestige of monopoly preservation. With Asterisk®, the simplest solution to this mess is to do your own lookups. And today we have an updated CallerID directory lookup service to assist: the CallerID Superfecta.

NOTE: This article has been superseded. Continue reading the latest article here.

We have a second utility as well. Since moving to PBX in a Flash and Asterisk 1.4 and 1.6, we haven't provided a simple way to block or screen anonymous calls, i.e. those that show up in CallerID as either blank, anonymous, unknown, private, restricted, or toll free number. As they say, those are the usual suspects when it comes to weeding out unwanted callers. And today we'll provide several solutions from which you can choose. Our personal preference is to never answer these calls and route them straight to voicemail. You may be more curious than we are so we'll show you an option to screen calls using the Asterisk Parking Lot feature. Still others may hate these callers so much that you send them into IVR hell for hours at a time. And we've got some suggestions on that one, too.

Introducing CallerID Superfecta. We've dusted off an oldie but goodie today and reworked it a bit for newer versions of PHP. We also want to thank taiter and M Joyner for their whitepages.ca contribution to what used to be our CallerID Trifecta. The CallerID Superfecta now lets you choose up to four CallerID lookup sources for your incoming calls. The sources include the Google Phonebook, AnyWho, WhitePages, and our very own AsteriDex address book and robodialer. Complete installation instructions are available from our Best of Nerd Vittles site.

Installation and setup is a snap on all of the FreePBX-based aggregations including PBX in a Flash, Elastix, and trixbox. First, download and unzip the callerid.zip file into the root directory of the web server on your Asterisk system. Next, configure the sources you wish to use in callerid.php by setting the desired sources to 1 instead of 0 on the second page of the file. Then define the new CallerID Lookup Source in FreePBX. And finally, select the CallerID Superfecta as the lookup source for each of your Inbound Routes. The whole setup should take you less than two minutes. Now sit back and enjoy a much enhanced CallerID experience when incoming calls arrive on your Asterisk server.

Introducing the Creep Detector. Well, not so fast. The CallerID Superfecta doesn't get rid of the creeps that call wanting to sell you something or urging you to vote for your favorite Coroner. For that, you'll need a couple of tools. FreePBX includes an excellent web-based implementation of the Asterisk Blacklist. It allows you to specify the phone numbers of calls that should be blocked. You also can do this with a phone on your system by dialing *32 to blacklist the last caller or *30 to blacklist a specific phone number.

But, what about blacklisting all of those anonymous callers. Well, there's not an existing function in FreePBX to do it. Our preferred method goes like this. When an incoming call arrives, a message plays saying "Thanks for calling the Mundy's. Please hold a moment while I connect your call." During this message, a Stealth AutoAttendant will allow family members to press various buttons to be connected to various extensions. See the previous article for details. Once the IVR times out (in about 5 seconds), the call is passed to a Privacy Checker which screens the calls for creeps. If the call isn't identified as such, it is sent to a ring group. If a creep is detected, the system first plays a message that says: "Press 8 to be connected." If no key is pressed, we hang up. If 8 is pressed, the call goes to voicemail 704. If 4 is pressed, the call is passed to the ring group. This lets friends calling from phones with CallerID blocked still get through the maze.

So here's how to get it installed and working. Log into your server as root and add the following code snippet to the bottom of /etc/asterisk/extensions_custom.conf:

[custom-privacy-check]
exten => s,1,SetMusicOnHold(default)
exten => s,2,GotoIf($["${CALLERID(num)}" = ""]?s,16)
exten => s,3,GotoIf($["foo${CALLERID(num)}" = "foo"]?s,16)
exten => s,4,GotoIf($["${CALLERID(name):1:8}" = "nonymous"]?s,16)
exten => s,5,GotoIf($["${CALLERID(name):1:6}" = "nknown"]?s,16)
exten => s,6,GotoIf($["${CALLERID(num):1:6}" = "rivate"]?s,16)
exten => s,7,GotoIf($["${CALLERID(name):1:6}" = "rivate"]?s,16)
exten => s,8,GotoIf($["${CALLERID(num):1:9}" = "estricted"]?s,16)
exten => s,9,GotoIf($["${CALLERID(num):0:4}" = "PSTN"]?s,16)
exten => s,10,GotoIf($["${CALLERID(num):1:3}" = "oll"]?s,16)
exten => s,11,GotoIf($["${CALLERID(name):1:2}" = "--"]?s,16)
exten => s,12,GotoIf($["${CALLERID(name):0:1}" = ","]?s,16)
exten => s,13,GotoIf($["${CALLERID(name):1:3}" = "oll"]?s,16)
exten => s,14,GotoIf($["${CALLERID(num):0:3}" = "000"]?s,16)
exten => s,15,Dial(Local/777@from-internal)
exten => s,16,Playback(custom/nv-press8)
exten => s,17,Set(TIMEOUT(digit)=10)
exten => s,18,WaitExten(10)
exten => s,19,Hangup
exten => 4,1,Dial(Local/777@from-internal)
exten => 4,2,Hangup
exten => 8,1,VoiceMail(704@default)
exten => 8,2,Hangup

You'll need to make a couple of changes in the code above before using it. In lines s,14 and 4,1, modify extension 777 to reflect an extension or ring group on your phone system that you want to call after incoming calls are screened for creeps. In line 8,1, modify 704 to reflect a voicemail box that is active on your system and that should be used for recording messages from unwanted callers.

The next step is to add the "Press 8 to be connected" message to your system. While still logged in as root, issue the following commands:

cd /var/lib/asterisk/sounds/custom
wget http://bestof.nerdvittles.com/applications/callerid/nv-press8.wav
chown asterisk:asterisk nv-press8.wav
chmod +x nv-press8.wav

Now we need to configure your FreePBX setup to use the code above. The easiest way is to modify your Stealth AutoAttendant IVR and simply change the timeout destination (t) to a Custom App: custom-privacy-check,s,1. Save your changes and reload your dialplan, and you're all set.

Some additional ideas have also been floated on the PBX in a Flash Forum for handling anonymous callers. If you'd prefer to park these calls and announce them, see this thread. And here's an embellished version that gives you options to accept the call, send it to voicemail, or banish the caller. Enjoy!

 

Special Thanks to Our Generous Sponsors


FULL DISCLOSURE: ClearlyIP, Skyetel, Vitelity, DigitalOcean, Vultr, VoIP.ms, 3CX, Sangoma, TelecomsXchange and VitalPBX have provided financial support to Nerd Vittles and our open source projects through advertising, referral revenue, and/or merchandise. As an Amazon Associate and Best Buy Affiliate, we also earn from qualifying purchases. We’ve chosen these providers not the other way around. Our decisions are based upon their corporate reputation and the quality of their offerings and pricing. Our recommendations regarding technology are reached without regard to financial compensation except in situations in which comparable products at comparable pricing are available from multiple sources. In this limited case, we support our sponsors because our sponsors support us.

blankBOGO Bonaza: Enjoy state-of-the-art VoIP service with a $10 credit and half-price SIP service on up to $500 of Skyetel trunking with free number porting when you fund your Skyetel account. No limits on number of simultaneous calls. Quadruple data center redundancy. $25 monthly minimum spend required. Tutorial and sign up details are here.

blankThe lynchpin of Incredible PBX 2020 and beyond is ClearlyIP components which bring management of FreePBX modules and SIP phone integration to a level never before available with any other Asterisk distribution. And now you can configure and reconfigure your new Incredible PBX phones from the convenience of the Incredible PBX GUI.

blankVitalPBX is perhaps the fastest-growing PBX offering based upon Asterisk with an installed presence in more than 100 countries worldwide. VitalPBX has generously provided a customized White Label version of Incredible PBX tailored for use with all Incredible PBX and VitalPBX custom applications. Follow this link for a free test drive!
 

blankSpecial Thanks to Vitelity. Vitelity is now Voyant Communications and has halted new registrations for the time being. Our special thanks to Vitelity for their unwavering financial support over many years and to the many Nerd Vittles readers who continue to enjoy the benefits of their service offerings. We will keep everyone posted on further developments.
 

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