all right so today I'd like to go over
some free PBX security item not going
again anything advanced I just want to
go over some very basic low-level
concepts that I see a lot of people
getting wrong the first is when it comes
to opening ports there's this big
misconception that if you're using free
PBX and you have phones and a PBX on the
same network that you need to open ports
50 60 and 50 61 and if you don't open
those ports and open for it's ten
thousand through twenty thousand that
your PBX is not going to work properly
I never forwarded those ports in my
routers firewall and it works so the way
that this works is kind of kind of like
browsing the web so a lot of people
think that you need to open ports to
make the system work but you don't open
port 80 when you go to browse the web do
you you don't you don't go to you know
check your weather let me open port 80
in my router to this computer that's not
how it works
so you open a port when you're providing
a service so I don't have to open a port
to browse the web to check out a website
however if I want to run a web server on
my on my network then I need to forward
that port to the computer that I want to
run a web server on the same thing is
true with FTP clients if I want to
download a file from an FTP server I
don't have to open port 21 on my router
but if I want to run an FTP server
meaning this computer that I'm using to
edit video right now if I want to put an
FTP server on here that serves files to
other people then I have to open port 21
on my router and make sure that the
requests are forwarded to that
particular computer now the same is true
with the PBX system if I have the phone
on the same local network as my PBX
system I don't have to open ports on my
router to make it work you only have to
do that if you have some type of setup
where the phones are on a separate
network from your PBX so let's say you
have a PBX in Michigan and your branch
office is in Connecticut then you get
into dealing with VPNs
then you get into dealing with VPN
tunnels and opening ports and all sorts
of wacky stuff that I'm not going to get
into in a small video series to make
that work and there are many companies
that offer great products for them so
when I was when I had a second store
location in Brooklyn I wanted to use the
same PBX I wanted to use the same
network we set up these two micro tech
routers and those two routers and pretty
mispronouncing the name but I'm sorry if
I am but they were very very cool
products that I will recommend you get
it you get a router for $86 that you
could practically run an ISP off a very
advanced but you can do that you can set
it up with a VPN so that you can have
locations all around the country and
everything works but that's a little bit
more complicated than what I'm looking
to get into in this video the point I'm
trying to get across is don't start
opening ports on your router if you're
sitting next to the router the phone and
the PBX and things are not working look
elsewhere
the second thing here again that that's
also going to go for things like like
the web interface so a lot of people
will open port 80 because they say what
if I want to change the setting from far
away you have to set up something else
you have to set up a VPN you have to
edit you have to log into the web
interface when you're on that local
network whatever setup you do for the
love of God please do not open port 80
on your free PBX box port 80 is
constantly being probed by hackers all
the time and if there is any exploit in
your free PBX system they are gonna log
into it they're gonna they're gonna run
these exploits and they are going to add
users and extensions and you're gonna
it's it's gonna be very very bad you
know I've seen systems where you could
not access the voicemail you couldn't
access the call recordings with the call
recordings and the voicemails were
deleted all sorts of crazy stuff when
all of this happened on systems where
port 80 was open to the public so before
you open a port on your PBX just think
about this stuff now the second thing is
going to be with passwords so when it
comes to passwords again I was joking
and using really dumb passwords for this
because it's for a YouTube video and I
just don't feel like writing it down
remembering it all of these are getting
white what I recommend you do is use
something like this when you're creating
the secrets for your phone or the
password for your endpoint so this is
the GRC ultra high security password
generator so let's just view this on the
screen right here okay we're viewing the
wrong screen thank you for viewing the
wrong screen so this is the GRC high
security password generator so you can
just google it or you can go to GRC comm
slash passwords without HTM it's going
to create these really long strings of
password
that are again high-security and you can
use these so I would I use these for my
phone secrets I use them for my phone
passwords I use them for my voice polls
give for my voice polls end point which
the PBX is going to be attaching to I'm
not setting one two three four I'm not
setting my name or my birthday or you
know as the password for these end
points it's a bad idea and I want to end
the last thing I want to get into here
his physical security where is the PBX
is the PBX somewhere where if you fire
an employee and they're mad at you that
they know that on their way out they can
accidentally trip over the wire going to
the PBX we are you putting this thing is
it in a locked closet isn't in a locked
server room is it in a lot is it in a
ventilated environment that's not humid
that's not damn but it doesn't have
holes in the wall of the ceiling and is
it in a place where again if somebody if
you fire somebody or is it or you're
arguing with a customer can they just
say screw you and while they're walking
out knock the thing over people don't
think about this they shove D like it's
the same thing with surveillance systems
is it with phone systems people take
this box and they shove it wherever it's
convenient at the time whether it's in
the corner of the floor or somebody's
gonna step on it whether it's in the
front of the store where a customer can
actually play with this and go what's
that they think it's that they think of
the toy just put the remember to put
this thing someplace where it's actually
secure you know a lot of people these
days they want to be these security
experts these hacking experts these and
you know these and one of the things
about computer security and IT security
in general is that it you know all of
that that stuff is good to know
very often computer security comes down
a common sense a lot of the big hacks
and a lot of the big exploits that you
read about if you read further you'll
realize that it wasn't necessarily that
the person who did it was the biggest
genius who managed to crack the best
code in the world very often it's a
really dumb stupid terrible mistake in
administration where the password of one
two three four or somebody wasn't
watching this or where they had a
million-dollar secure facility but this
one box of important stuff that nobody
ever thought anybody was steal was
sitting right next to the door I mean
it's it's really dumb stuff that gets
people in trouble again and it often
comes down to laziness or wanting to do
a quick
or troubleshooting and you know I can't
connect I can't make calls
let me try forwarding the port's that
didn't work let me try the set changing
the settings with my voice VoIP services
provider that worked and then forgetting
to go back and close the port's that you
just opened again I'm gonna make a phone
call right now just to make a point I
have two PB X's on my network same
network and I have two sets of phones
all on that same network so what I'm
gonna do here is I'm gonna use the phone
from my network to call the phone system
that was set up for another office it's
all on the same network and you're gonna
hear them ring you know you really don't
have to forward a bunch of poor to do a
bunch of crazy stuff this really if you
set it up properly it should just work
that's another thing that I read online
you can't have two PB X's in the same
network you can't have two PB X's on the
same network without a bunch of crazy
setup if that's the case then why your
phone's ringing you know that's all I
have to say so I'm dream again when it
comes to security just just think before
you open ports think before you put this
box where anybody can can open it up and
steal it and think twice before you you
trust any of the troubleshooting steps
you read online the free PBX forms are
an absolutely amazing resource of very
very knowledgeable and talented people
and if you just read around that for
them look for the people that have a lot
of posts that have a lot of good answers
and try to use the search feature before
they ask a lot of questions and just
trust what you have a little bit of
skepticism before you trust what people
say and if you're going to trust people
make sure you're trusting the people who
are giving experienced advice on these
forums rather than the people who have
one or two posts who are telling you you
need to open all these ports because
again the biggest problem with these
systems the biggest problem that I see
with any free PBX based phone system is
just crap like port 80 is open to the
world and the browser password is like 1
2 3 4 you know just be careful of that
stuff because it will destroy the entire
system