CVE-2014-5561 in Word Search Free
Summary
by MITRE
The Word Search Free (aka air.wordSearchFree) application 4.9 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 • 08/24/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2014-5561 affects the Word Search Free Android application version 4.9, specifically targeting its implementation of secure communication protocols. This issue represents a critical failure in the application's cryptographic security measures, where the software fails to properly validate SSL/TLS certificates presented by remote servers during network communications. The absence of certificate verification creates a significant security gap that adversaries can exploit to compromise the integrity of data exchanges between the mobile application and backend services.
The technical flaw manifests as a lack of X.509 certificate validation within the application's secure socket layer implementation. This weakness directly violates established security practices for mobile application development and network communication security. The vulnerability stems from the application's failure to perform proper certificate chain validation, hostname verification, and trust anchor checking that are fundamental requirements for establishing secure communications. According to CWE-295, this represents a failure to validate certificates, which is categorized under improper certificate validation weaknesses. The vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1041, where adversaries exploit weak certificate validation to conduct man-in-the-middle attacks.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data interception, as it enables sophisticated attack scenarios that can compromise user privacy and sensitive information. Attackers can leverage this weakness to create fraudulent SSL certificates that appear legitimate to the vulnerable application, allowing them to decrypt and modify communications between the mobile device and target servers. This capability can result in the exposure of user credentials, personal information, financial data, and other sensitive content that the application processes or stores. The vulnerability is particularly concerning in mobile environments where applications often handle personal data and communicate with backend services that may contain confidential information.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2014-5561 require immediate attention from both application developers and security administrators. The primary remediation involves implementing proper SSL/TLS certificate validation mechanisms that verify certificate chains against trusted root certificates, perform hostname validation, and ensure certificate expiration checks are enforced. Application developers should adopt secure coding practices that include using established cryptographic libraries with proper certificate validation routines rather than implementing custom verification logic. Organizations should conduct comprehensive security assessments of mobile applications to identify similar certificate validation weaknesses and ensure compliance with industry standards such as NIST SP 800-52 for certificate management and TLS implementation guidelines. Regular security updates and patches should be deployed to address this vulnerability, while network monitoring systems should be configured to detect potential man-in-the-middle attack attempts targeting mobile applications with weak certificate validation implementations.