Asterisk: Make all calls go through extension - asterisk

I have a VoIP system implemented purely in Asterisk. Now, I have general users and privileged ones and a special extension, 555.
What I need: When general users call 555, they are "redirected" to extension 111 which may or may not transfer the call to 555. When a privileged user calls 555, the call goes through normally.
What is the best way of solving this? I'm thinking with contexts, but I want more opinions.
Thanks!

Use GotoIF condition in dialplan.
For check if user is "privileged" you can use some database access, for example via func_odbc.

Related

Missed Call in Lync/Skype database?

In our company, we use Lync/Skype for Business. In the database, is there a way to know whether a call is missed?
For example, a customer called the support number, but for certain reason, the call is not pickup, is there a way to find this call info by query Lync/Sfb database?
Or, Lync/SfB will not log info in this case?
Thanks
It depends on the "Call" did you refer here to a PSTN call? If thats a simple VOIP call then a so called peer2peer call might happen here which didn´t involved the Skype for Business (=SfB) / Lync server as this is done between both SfB clients without the server.
I think a good step might be to check whats currently possible with the build in Monitoring Reports in Skype for Business Server (see here as starting point).

asterisk get credit card info

I`m trying to build a script that will capture the credit card info like card number,cvc and expiration date using asterisk 11.x and asterisk-java library for AMI/AGI integration.
Right now I am able to build a script that will acquire that info if it is called via dialplan but i have a different scenario:
1. A call enters a queue.
2. An agent from the specific queue answer the call
3. The caller wants to input the card details
4. After the caller has entered the card details is redirected back to agent to continue the call.
My specific problem is related to step 3 as I do not know how to route the caller to my AGI and then back to the same agent. (eventually the agents has to be still involved in (some) call to guarantee that when the caller returns from agi it is still available)
Any idea how can I achieve that ? I know that this is a common practice so I think that there has to be a way.
When the call is delivered to the agent, use a macro to set a custom channel variable with the agent ID or extension in it.
Then, when your credit-card authentication function is done, read the variable and use an AGI command to transfer the call back to the agent.
Further Reading
http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/Asterisk+variables
http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/Asterisk+manager+Example:+Transfer
Note if this solution solves your problem, please 'accept' it to make it easier for others with the same issue to find it. thanks!
There are no any common practice for business process like you have. That depend of you and your client only.
You can use features conf or transfer. Can transfer to special extension or to conference room.
No way say what suite you better.
For sure you need understand how asterisk work before write any AGI/AMI or dialplan application. I can recommend ORelly's "Asterisk the future of telephony" book as start point.

Uncommon? Call Forwarding Rule

I'm looking to have my FreePBX server forward incoming calls to a phone number that it pulls from a mysql database. The only thing unique about how I need it to forward calls is that there will be multiple numbers located in the database, and I need my PBX to choose one of these numbers purely at random and forward the call there. Is there a native function in FreePBX or Asterisk that allows for pulling a number at random from a database and forwarding the call there? Help is much appreciated
There are no module like that. You can write it or ask someone write it.
You also can use extension with type-> custom and dialline like s#special-dial. After that put in context special-dial into file extensions_custom.conf which will access database.
http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/Asterisk+config+extensions.conf
http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/Asterisk+func+func_odbc

Protecting hard-coded data that cannot be available to the user, such as a pass phrase

My program needs to decrypt an encrypted file after it starts up to load data it requires to function. This data cannot be available to the user.
I'm not a cryptography expert, so what is the best way to protect hardcoded passphrases and other tidbits of data from users, debugging software and disassembling software?
I understand that this is probably bad practice but it's essential for me (at least for now).
If there are other ways to protect my data from the above 3, could you let me know what those are?
Short answer: you can't. Once the software is on the user's disk, a sufficiently smart and determined user will be able to extract the secret data from it.
For a longer answer, see "Storing secrets in software" on the security.SE blog.
what is the best way to protect hardcoded passphrases and other
tidbits of data from users, debugging software and disassembling
software?
Request the password from the user and don't hardcode the passphrase. This is the ONLY way to be safe.
If you can't do that and must be hardcoded in the app then all bets are off.
The simplest thing you can do (if you don't have the luxury to do something elaborate which will only delay the inevidable) is to delegate the responsibility to the user of the system.
I mean explicitely state that you software is as secure as the "machine" it runs.
If the attacker has access to start pocking around the file system then your app would be the user's least of concerns
In my experience this type of questions are often motivated by either of four reasons:
Your application is connecting to a restricted remote service, such as a database server.
You do not want your users to mess with configuration settings, which in turn do not really have to be kept confidential as long as they are unmodified.
Copy protection of your own software.
Copy protection of data.
Like Illmari Karonen wrote in his answer, you can't do exactly what you are asking for, and this means in particular that 3 & 4 cannot be solved by cryptography alone.
However, if your reason for asking is either 1 or 2, you have ended up asking the questions you do, because you have made some bad decisions earlier in your design process. For instance, in case of 1, you should not make a restricted service accessible from systems you do not trust completely. The typical safe solution is to introduce a middle tier that is the only client to your restricted resource, and which you can make public.
In case of 2, the best solution is often to use exactly the same logic for checking your configuration files (or registry settings or what ever) when they are loaded at start up, as you use for checking consistency when the user enters them using your preferred configuration user interface. If you spot an inconsistency, just bring up your configuration UI and highlight the problem.

Determining the set of message destinations at runtime in BizTalk application

I’m a complete newbie at BizTalk and I need to create a BizTalk 2006 application which broadcasts messages in a specific way. I’m not asking for a complete solution, but for advise and guidelines, which capabilities of BizTalk I should use.
There’s a message source, for simplicity, say, a directory where the user adds files to publish them. There are several subscribers, each having a directory to receive published files. The number of subscribers can vary in the course of exploitation of the program. There are also some rules which determine if a particular subscriber needs to receive a particular file, based on the filename. For example, each subscriber has a pattern or mask of filename which files they receives must match. Those rules (for example, patterns) can change in time as well.
I don’t know how to do this. Create a set of send ports at runtime, each for each destination? Is it possible? Use one port changing its binding? Would it work correctly with concurrent sendings? Are there other ways?
EDIT
I realized my question may be to obscure and general to prefer one answer over another to accept. So I just upvoted them.
You could look at using dynamic send ports to achieve this - if your subscribers are truly dynamic. This introduces a bit of complexity since you'll need to use an orchestration to configure the send port's properties based on your rules.
If you can, try and remove the complexity. If you know that you don't need to be truly dynamic when adding subscribers (i.e. a subscriber and it's rules can be configured one time only) and you have a manageable number of subscribers then I would suggest configuring each subscriber using it's own send port and use a filter to create subscriptions based on message context properties. The beauty of this approach is that you don't need to create and deploy an orchestration and this becomes a highly performant and scalable solution.
If the changes to the destination are going to be frequent, you are right in seeking a more dynamic solution. One nice solution is using dynamic send ports and the Business Rules Engine. You create rule set for the messages you are receving. This could be based on a destination property or customer ID in the message. Using these facts, the rules engine can return a bunch of information like file mask, server name, ip address of deleiver server, etc. You can thenuse this information to configure the dynamic send in the orchestration. The real nice thing here is that you can update the rule set in the rules engine without redeploying the whole solution. As a newb, these are some advanced concepts, but not as diificult as you may think.
For a simpler solution, you might want to look at setting the FILE Send adapters properties via it's Propery Schema (ie. File name, Directory, etc.). You could pull these values from a database with a helper class inside an expresison shape. On each message ogig out, use the property shcema to set where the message will be sent and named. This way, you just update the database as things change.
Good Luck!

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