CVE-2014-3902 in Ameba
Summary
by MITRE
The CyberAgent Ameba application 3.x and 4.x before 4.5.0 for Android does not verify X.509 certificates from SSL servers, which allows man-in-the-middle attackers to spoof servers and obtain sensitive information via a crafted certificate.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/11/2019
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2014-3902 affects the CyberAgent Ameba application version 3.x and 4.x prior to 4.5.0 on Android platforms. This represents a critical security flaw in the application's implementation of secure communication protocols, specifically within its handling of SSL/TLS certificate validation mechanisms. The vulnerability stems from the application's failure to properly validate X.509 certificates presented by SSL servers during secure connections, creating a significant attack surface that compromises the integrity of encrypted communications between the mobile application and remote servers.
The technical flaw manifests as a complete absence of certificate verification within the application's SSL implementation, allowing attackers to exploit the trust model by presenting maliciously crafted certificates that appear legitimate to the vulnerable application. This weakness directly violates fundamental security principles of public key infrastructure and certificate-based authentication, where proper certificate validation is essential to establish trust between client and server. The vulnerability operates at the transport layer security level, where the application should be performing certificate chain validation, hostname verification, and signature validation against trusted certificate authorities but instead accepts any certificate presented by an attacker.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability exposes users to severe man-in-the-middle attacks where attackers can intercept and modify communications between the Ameba application and its backend services. The implications extend beyond simple data interception to include potential account compromise, unauthorized access to personal information, and the ability to inject malicious content into the application's communication streams. Attackers can exploit this weakness to impersonate legitimate servers, steal session tokens, access user credentials, and potentially gain unauthorized access to sensitive personal data stored within the application's ecosystem. This vulnerability particularly impacts user privacy and data confidentiality, as the application's security model fails to protect against active network attacks that target the SSL/TLS layer.
The security implications of this vulnerability align with CWE-295, which specifically addresses "Improper Certificate Validation," and can be categorized under ATT&CK technique T1566 for credential harvesting through man-in-the-middle attacks. Organizations and users should prioritize immediate remediation by updating to version 4.5.0 or later of the Ameba application, where proper certificate validation mechanisms have been implemented. Additional mitigations include network-level monitoring for suspicious certificate behavior, implementing network segmentation to limit exposure, and educating users about the importance of keeping applications updated. Security teams should also consider deploying certificate pinning mechanisms within their network infrastructure to provide additional protection layers against this class of attack, as the vulnerability represents a fundamental failure in the application's security architecture that requires both application-level and infrastructure-level defenses to adequately protect against exploitation attempts.