Mobile VMS Top Integrator Problems

By Ethan Ace, Published on Oct 24, 2016

In an IPVM survey, integrators report 4 problems most consistently with using mobile VMS applications:

  • Network setup / cybersecurity concerns
  • Latency / Delay / Throughput issues in connecting to video
  • Lost settings / updates break connectivity
  • Complexity / unclear UI

In this report, we share dozens of integrator's feedback on using mobile VMS apps, reviewing these issues and more.

Network ***** / *************

*** **** ******** ********* of *********** *** ******* with **** **********/************* ** enable ****** *** ******. Customer ** *********** **** cited ** * ****** obstacle, ** **** ** not **** ** ***** access ** ***** ******* via *** ********, ** through *** ******* ** acquiring * ****** **/*** entry, ****** * ***, etc. ******* ****** *** ****** ******* ****** *** Video ************ *** *********** ** ***** methods *** ***** **** and ****.

  • "**** *********' ** *********** are ********* ** **** up ********* ** ***** external ******, ********* *** mobile ***(*) **** **** work ****** ***** **********, unless ***** ** *** access."
  • "*** ******* ***** * see **** ****** *** apps ** *** ******** vulnerabilities **** **** **** putting *** *** ****** on *** ********. **** manufacturers ** * **** job ** *********** ***** mobile ******* ** ******** the ******, *** **** like ******* ** ******* SSLs *** ***** ************* features *** ** ******* I ***** *** ************* do * **** *** of ***** ********* *** users *** *********** ** to *** ********* *******. I ***** **** ************* need ** ****** **** in ***** ********* ******, and **** *********** ***** to ******* ************* ********* into ***** ************* ******* (currently *** ************* **** to ** ****; ************* classes *** ** ** mostly *** ** ********* things ********* *** *** to ******** **** ******* calls)."
  • "**** ********** *** ******** when ********* *** ****** from *** ********."
  • "** **** *** *** Genetec *** ********* **** and * **** **** work ****. *** ******* issue ** ********** ** getting *** *** ***** IT **** ** ******* a ****** *** ***** and *** ** **** forwarding."
  • "*** ******* ******* **, how ** ***** **** forwarding ** *** ******** router. ******* ** ***'* have ****** ** ******."
  • "******* ** *********** ** open ** ******** ***** for ****** ******. ****, nothing ***."
  • "**** ** *** ********* don't *** *** ****** apps ******* ** ****** raised ** ***** *** internal ** *****. **** don't *** ****** ** a ******* ***** ** on ***** *** ********, but ********* ** ******** from *** **** ** something **** ***'* ** from ***** ****** ******* easily."
  • "** ** ********** ** want ** ********* ***-**-*** functionality. ************ ****** ** in **** ******* *** biggest **** ** ** usually ** *** **** any ******* **** *** networking **** ***** ** our ******** ** *** carrier."

Latency / ***** / **********

*********** **** ********* ********** and ******* ** ******* issues ** ****** ****. These ****** *** ********* on ******* *******, ********* internet ****** ***** ** the ******** ********, ******** network *****, *** ****** processing *****, *** ** which **** ****** **** case ** ****, *** may ******* ** ********** each *****.

  • "*** ******** *** ****** and ******* ** ** issue **** *** ******** network. *** "***-******" ** "pinch" *** **** ******* is ********* ** ******* the ***** ** ****."
  • "**** **** **** ***** mobile ****, ***** ** playback ** * *** slower *** ******."
  • "*** *** *** ** tediously **** ** ******* and ******* ******** ***** is **** **** *******."
  • "*** ****** ** ****** but **** ******** ********* VMS ** ******* ** the **** ****** ** the ***/*** ***. ** a *** ********** *** not * ******* *********."
  • "**** *** *** ******** slow ** **** *******, and *** ******* ** bad"
  • "* ***'* **** * problem **** **** *** se. ***** ** ***** enough ********* ** **** customer's ************. ** **** estate ***** ** ** old ******; ********, ********, location. ** *** ******** it ** *********, *********, bandwidth."
  • "**** **** *****, **** than ***** ** ***** vms."
  • "*** **** *** ** the ***** *********"

Settings **** ** ******

******** *********** ***** **** updates *** ***** *** settings ** ** ****, requiring ***** ** ***** and/or *** ******* *****, which *** ** ******** or ******* ** **** and ******* * ******* or **** ******* **** at *****.

  • "*****. ***** ********** *** multiple ********* *******. *** server ***** *******, ****** auto ******* ** ********* iPhone ** ******* *** breaks ************* **** *** Web ******. ***** ********. An ******** *********. ********* works ************ *** *** time. ** ****** * real ******** *** **. We **** ** *** Exacq *** ****** *** jobs *** ** **** require ****** ****** **** are ****** *** ***** cheap ********* *********."
  • "* **** **** *********'* and *****'*. * **** Exacq ** ** *** better ** *** *** but **** ***** ** occasion **** *** *** has ****** ******* ****** or ********* **** *** happened ** *** ***** that ****** *** ** the ****** ***** ** be ***** ***."
  • "*** ***** **** ***** with ****** **** ** that **** ******** *** apps ********* ***** **** to ******* ***** *********** and **** ****** **** remember *** ***********. **'** become * ***** ******** keeper *** * ******** of *** ********* ***** is ***** *********** **** do *** ******** ********* to *********** ******** *********** and *******."

Too *******

*******, ******* *********** ********* that ****** **** **** too *********** ** *********, especially ****** *****/******* *****.

  • "*****, *****, ***** ****'** driving ** ********* *** myself *****. ***** *****'* seem ** ** * good *************** *** *****. It ***** **** ***** manuf. ******* **** ** their ***. **** ** my ***** ********* **** trouble ****** **** *** little **** ** **** a ******* ** *** they *** **** **********. What ** ***** **** just ***** ******** ***** and **** **** *** your ********* ********? * think ** **** ** get **** **** ******* drawings *** *** **** to ****, ** ** least **** * ********* standard *** *****."
  • "** *********** *** **** users. *** ******* *** too ***** ** **********."
  • "*** ***********. *** *********** tries ** **** ********** the ***- ***** ** make ** ** *** much. ***** *** *** difficult ** *** ** do *** ***** ************* required *** * ****** app- **** ****, ****** camera, ***** ********."

Upcoming ****** *** ****

** *** **** *** weeks, ** **** ** test ******* ****** **** from ******* *************, ********* Hikvision, *****, *****, *** more, ** ****** ***** issues *** ****, ********* usability ******** ** **** from * ** **********. If ***** *** ****** not ********* ****, *** us **** ** *** comments.

Comments (14)

Avatar

Sarunas Pavilionis

10/24/16 07:07pm

Hm, there is not integrators, but installers problems listed :D

Undisclosed Integrator #1

10/24/16 07:16pm

Another big issue is AD integration on the app side. Some have it, some don't, and some just aren't very clean. For example, Avigilon requires both an "operator user" to login to the gateway server, and then another user (which can be your AD user) to login to the site. Milestone is capable of using just your AD user for authentication, and that's what other apps need to aspire to do as most users don't want to remember multiple users. Some apps that support AD on the PC clients don't even support it on the mobile apps which seems ridiculous.

Avatar

Sarunas Pavilionis

10/24/16 07:28pm

Mobile app's issues was already listed by IPVM - "cheap" products has more better mobile support, than "serious" VMS.

Undisclosed Integrator #2

10/24/16 08:22pm

Milestone causes issues by routinely failing pci compliance, also if you try to use an industry standard https certificate you have to extract out the certificate in a convoluted way. What's worse they don't provide the tools built in so you extract with 3rd tools which is time consuming. To be honest they should "do a Google" and only support https and do it in an easy to implement way.

Avatar

Jared Tarter

Milestone Systems
In reply to Undisclosed Integrator #2 | 10/25/16 04:43am

*** I work for Milestone ***

UI2, can you expand on "Milestone causes issues by routinely failing pci compliance"? Are you referring to PCI compliance in regards to protocols (SSL, TLS, etc). and ciphers or something else?

Avatar

Joshua Hendricks

Milestone Systems
In reply to Undisclosed Integrator #2 | 10/25/16 07:52am

*** I work for Milestone ***

To follow-up on Jared's question, I'm curious if you also know of an example of an application (doesn't have to be VMS related) where it is easy and intuitive to import publicly signed certificates?

In my experience it can be a painful process for a lot of applications and I'm not sure I've encountered an application where this is handled intuitively from beginning to end. This is further complicated thanks to certificate providers using varying processes for generating the private key and delivering the resultant public key in different formats.

IIS comes close but it can still be confusing if your public/private key pair are separated and need to be combined into a single PFX. I always get stuck using openssl command line tools at some point even on private projects relating to Apache, IIS or nginx.

If you have an example of a dead simple process I'm genuinely interested in looking into this.

Undisclosed Integrator #2

10/25/16 08:25am

Hi Both,

Yes we are seeing a lot of sites now requiring PCI compliance. We find Milestone ( and others ;) ) always fail using the self signed, and port 8081 Mobile port. We switch off 8081 by default but setting up https seems so hard, I found a update on milestone support forums but just couldn't get it to work - the result is we now switch off Milestone mobile for PCI sites. Also the mobile port is a the hardest because its the only port you cant lock to a external IP, the very nature of it is you are accessing from a variety of random networks.

Joshua gave the example of IIS and yes this just works, you buy the certificate you drop it in and that is it.

I was working through this below but lost the will to live... :D

http://forum.milestonesys.com/yaf_postst2971_Purchase-Install-real--not-self-signed--SSL-cert.aspx

Undisclosed Integrator #2

In reply to Undisclosed Integrator #2 | 10/25/16 08:30am

This is a typical failure we see :)

CVSS Base Score: 4.3 AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N
CVSS Temporal Score: 3.7 E:POC/RL:U/RC:UR
Severity: 3
QID: 38603
Category: General remote services
CVE ID: CVE-2014-3566
Vendor Reference: POODLE
Bugtraq ID: 70574
Last Update: 2016-01-06 21:57:28.0
VULNERABILITY DETAILS
PCI Severity Level:
PCI COMPLIANCE STATUS
SSLv3 Padding Oracle Attack Information Disclosure Vulnerability (POODLE) port 8082 / tcp over ssl

RESULT:
N/A
SOLUTION:
Disable SSLv3 support to avoid this vulnerability.
Examples to disable SSLv3.
nginx: list specific allowed protocols in the "ssl_protocols" line. Make sure SSLv2 and SSLv3 is not listed. For example: ssl_protocols TLSv2 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2;
Apache: Add -SSLv3 to the "SSLProtocol" line.
How to disable SSL 3.0 on Microsoft IIS.
For PCI, please refer to the Qualys community article.
IMPACT:
An attacker who can take a man-in-the-middle (MitM) position can exploit this vulnerability and gain access to encrypted communication between a client and server.
THREAT:

Avatar

Jared Tarter

Milestone Systems
In reply to Undisclosed Integrator #2 | 10/25/16 03:14pm

The Mobile Server is .NET based and uses standard Windows libraries which also means it will use whatever protocols and ciphers are enabled in Windows. By default, Windows has them all enabled. You can disable the ones that you do not need. There are different ways of doing this but one of the better ones I have found is by using a program called IIS Crypto (https://www.nartac.com/Products/IISCrypto). It has a template for PCI compliance that will disable anything that isn't PCI compliance.

I'll let Josh answer the certificate questions. :-)

Avatar

Joshua Hendricks

Milestone Systems
In reply to Undisclosed Integrator #2 | 10/25/16 09:40pm

It sounds like the biggest pain point is that the Mobile Server does not assist with generating the CSR which is understandable. Ideally you could generate the CSR, and complete the cert request within Mobile Server much in the way you can within IIS. Hopefully that is something we can put on the roadmap.

In the meantime I believe despite what is written in the forum, you can still use IIS to generate and complete the CSR. If I'm not mistaken it doesn't necessarily even need to be done on the same machine as the Mobile Server. Once finished, you can export the certificate including private key into a PFX file which can be imported in Mobile Server.

Point taken though - I appreciate the feedback and will pass it on.

Undisclosed Integrator #2

10/26/16 08:54am

Hi Both, really useful feedback :)

Joshua are you saying if you have the csr in IIS ( I Do ) can can export it out for Milestone?

Thanks again

Avatar

Joshua Hendricks

Milestone Systems
In reply to Undisclosed Integrator #2 | 10/26/16 10:33am

Hi UI2 - It has been several months since the last time I went through the process so I could definitely be mistaken, but I'm fairly sure I have used IIS to both generate the CSR and "Complete the request". You should then be able to open the Certificate Manager (certmgr.msc) and export the cert, including the private key, in a password-protected .PFX file which in turn can be imported into the Mobile Server.

And as long as the hostname used for the CSR matches the DNS name you plan to access the Mobile Server with, I think you can technically do the IIS portion on a completely different machine if needed.

I'd say don't quote me on this but too late now ;) Hopefully we can make this workflow easier in a future version.

Undisclosed Integrator #1

10/26/16 04:32pm

Josh is correct. You can create the CSR in IIS, upload it to your preferred public CA, download the issued cert, choose to complete request in IIS, and then you can actually choose to export it straight from IIS. No need to go to certmgr to do so. Then it'll upload just fine into Mobile Server. Josh is also correct in that it doesn't have to be done on the VMS server. Can be done on any machine with IIS installed as long as the request CN matches the DNS used with mobile server. Did this a couple of weeks ago with a fresh 2016 R3 install.

Avatar

Joshua Hendricks

Milestone Systems
In reply to Undisclosed Integrator #1 | 10/26/16 06:32pm

Thanks for the assist UI1, and good to know the cert export can be done from directly within IIS - I had not noticed that before. Cheers

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