Nice Systems of Israel said it patched remaining critical flaws in its call recording software used by law enforcement, but the consultancy that discovered the risky flaws hasn't verified the fixes.
The interaction between Nice Systems and Austria-based SEC Consult shows the slightly uneasy, arms-length relationship software vendors have with security companies that sometimes uncover alarming problems through unsolicited audits.
Since late last year, Nice Systems has intermittently communicated with SEC Consult, which analyzed Nice Recording eXpress, which is software used by call centers and police to record phone calls.
SEC Consult occasionally picks applications and performs so-called "security crash tests" to discover vulnerabilities.
The firm's advisory describes nine vulnerabilities in Recording eXpress, six of which were ranked as serious. Some of the flaws could allow attackers to access call recordings and crack open a database showing the names of people whose calls are being monitored, which could potentially wreck a law enforcement investigation.
Over the course of three months earlier this year, Nice Systems patched a few of the problems, but some remained. Last week, SEC Consult went public with its findings, warning organizations to not use the software until at least five outstanding issues were fixed.
A public relations representative for Nice Systems, Mike Lizun, wrote via email Friday that the remaining issues in Recording eXpress, plus two older related products, Cybertech eXpress and Cybertech Myracle, had been fixed. Nice Systems is notifying its customers to upgrade to the latest version, which is R6.5 PL8.
The company believes that "none of our customers have been impacted" by the vulnerabilities, Lizun wrote.
SEC Consult has not had a chance to test if the latest patches fix the issues it found, wrote Johannes Greil, head of SEC Consult's Vulnerability Lab and one of two researchers who conducted the analysis of Recording eXpress, via email on Sunday.
Nice Systems has not yet provided a technical advisory to SEC Consult describing the latest patches, Greil wrote. However, SEC Consult obtained the advisory from another source.
The advisory, which was shared with IDG News Service, said that at least seven issues had been fixed, including multiple SQL injection vulnerabilities and various unauthenticated access issues.
Greil said the last communication he received from Nice Systems said the issues would be patched by the end of August. SEC Consult no longer has access to system it used to initially test Recording eXpress, so "we cannot confirm that all issues are indeed resolved or properly fixed," he wrote.
SEC Consult found two other vulnerabilities in Recording eXpress which were never confirmed by Nice Systems. Greil wrote. It was unclear if the latest patches or the previous patches issued by Nice Systems fix those issues, he wrote.
Greil stopped short of affirming SEC Consult's warning from last week that the Recording eXpress shouldn't be used, but advised that software buyers should write application security guarantees into purchasing contracts.
"In general, we recommend customers to be aware of toxic software and to do their own security tests, as still the majority of vendors are shipping software with inadequate application security."
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