CVE-2012-6637 in expressions
Summary
by MITRE
Apache Cordova 3.3.0 and earlier and Adobe PhoneGap 2.9.0 and earlier do not anchor the end of domain-name regular expressions, which allows remote attackers to bypass a whitelist protection mechanism via a domain name that contains an acceptable name as an initial substring.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 04/12/2025
The vulnerability described in CVE-2012-6637 represents a critical flaw in the domain validation mechanisms of Apache Cordova and Adobe PhoneGap mobile application frameworks. This issue affects versions 3.3.0 and earlier for Cordova, and 2.9.0 and earlier for PhoneGap, which are widely used for developing cross-platform mobile applications. The vulnerability stems from improper implementation of regular expression patterns used to validate domain names within whitelist protection systems. When domain-name regular expressions are not properly anchored, they fail to match the complete domain string rather than just partial matches, creating a significant security gap in application security controls.
The technical flaw manifests in the regular expression patterns used for domain validation, specifically the lack of proper anchoring at the end of the expression. In regular expression syntax, the dollar sign ($) symbol serves as an end anchor, ensuring that the pattern matches the entire string from beginning to end. Without this anchoring, the validation system becomes susceptible to substring matching attacks where malicious actors can craft domain names that contain legitimate domain names as initial substrings. This allows attackers to bypass whitelist restrictions by exploiting the incomplete pattern matching behavior, effectively enabling unauthorized network access through the application's whitelist protection mechanism.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is substantial as it undermines the fundamental security model of mobile applications that rely on domain whitelisting to control network communications. Mobile applications using affected versions of Cordova or PhoneGap may be vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks, data exfiltration, and unauthorized access to external services. Attackers can exploit this weakness to redirect application traffic to malicious domains that contain legitimate domains as prefixes, bypassing security controls designed to prevent such communications. This vulnerability particularly affects applications that implement strict network access policies and rely on whitelist-based domain validation for security purposes.
The vulnerability aligns with CWE-20, which describes improper input validation, and specifically relates to CWE-611, which covers improper restriction of XML external entity reference. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this issue maps to T1071.004 for Application Layer Protocol: DNS and T1566 for Phishing, as it enables attackers to bypass network security controls and potentially deliver malicious payloads through compromised domain names. The vulnerability also connects to T1190, Exploit Public-Facing Application, as it represents a flaw in a widely deployed application framework that can be exploited remotely. Organizations using affected versions should immediately implement mitigations including upgrading to patched versions of Cordova or PhoneGap, implementing additional validation layers, and reviewing all whitelist configurations to ensure proper domain name validation. The fix requires proper anchoring of regular expressions to ensure complete string matching rather than partial substring matching, which can be achieved by modifying the validation patterns to include both start and end anchors in the regular expression definitions.