Hacking the D-Link DPH-128MS VOIP Phone

An anonymous reader writes "I've been working on reverse engineering the D-Link DPH-128MS VOIP phone. It's an end of life product for D-Link but a neat little desktop phone that runs Linux. I've figured out a way to exploit the tftp server running on it to get root access. I'm at the point now of trying to figure out how to update the phone with more files. Check out the writeups I have and the scripts on the link above."

Sweet

[Nyder]

This belongs more on Hack a day, or somewhere, but nice job.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

What is this crazy 'tech stuff' doing on this site?!

Re:Sweet

[pla]

What is this crazy 'tech stuff' doing on this site?

Meh, y'know... Slow day for lawsuits, politics, and Apple press releases. Gotta fill the front page with something.

Re:Sweet

[aaaaaaargh!]

On the contrary, I'd like to see more stories like that. 'Cos the constant flow of recent iPhone and web-monkey stories on /. is definitely not news for nerds...

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[p0p0]

Parent is right in the fact that there are so many neat hacks out there that HackADay can cover more and is dedicated while /. has to pick and choose and be more broad in what they feature, otherwise everything else will just get drowned out.

Mikko

[jones_supa]

When he runs strings against full.img and finds "/home/mikko/release_p125/kernel/linux-2.4.17_mvl21/include/linux/dcache.h", Mikko is a popular Finnish men's name. So possibly some Finn was involved in creation of the phone.

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[pla]

Ya think?

Like, maybe Linus Torvalds, born December 28, 1969 in Helsinki, Finland? ;)

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[mkkohls]

Like, maybe Linus Torvalds, born December 28, 1969 in Helsinki, Finland? ;)

So he changed his name to mikko just to make this phone. That's one dedicated Finn.

what exactly does he want out of the phone?

[wierd_w]

I mean, there *is* pure enjoyment from digging into the inner workings of the beast, I'll grant that, but ultimarely, what is his major goal with hacking this voip phone?

It surely doesn't have very much NVRAM, or other permanent storage, so using it as a cleverly disguised file server is out of the question... it probably has a purpose built SoC processor, so using it for some processor intensive function is a whimiscally silly idea...

Short of unlocking it for use with arbitrary voip systems, or as a spybug

Re:

[ThatsMyNick]

Add new protocols (get it to support the Opus codec). Get it to record calls. There are lots of things you can do.

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[wierd_w]

Recording calls requires either permanent storage, or sacrifice of a fair chunk of its very minimal ram compliment for a block device, unless you want to set it up to save calls to an SMB share or something.

That's why I was asking.

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[ThatsMyNick]

I would happy if I can occasionally record calls, even for a very short time.
 
And you clearly are using you imagination if you dont see much purpose in hacking the device. One can set it up as an XMPP client (which can inturn be used for Google Chat/Talk), one can possibly set it up a skype client, one can add plenty of protocols that are not supported.

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[Dishevel]

unless you can find a remote exploit to subvert an installed phone.

Like, ummmm, I don't know .... tftp or something????

Nice work

[WinstonWolfIT]

Usually breaking into a device comes with a simple "hi y'all, my l33t". An actual breakdown of getting in was a very refreshing read, even if the author wasn't quite "l33t"

Put Asterisk on it..

[RightSaidFred99]

Then it can be its own VOIP server as well. Hawt.

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[plover]

He's trying for a "hack once, 'sploit everywhere" solution, which is a lot more valuable than a simple hardware mod.