CVE-2014-5621 in Office Zombie
Summary
by MITRE
The Office Zombie (aka com.fluik.OfficeZombieGoogleFree) application 1.3.13 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 • 08/26/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2014-5621 affects the Office Zombie application version 1.3.13 for Android devices, representing a critical security flaw in the application's implementation of secure communications. This issue stems from the application's failure to properly validate X.509 certificates during SSL/TLS connections, creating a significant attack surface that adversaries can exploit to compromise user data and system integrity. The vulnerability specifically targets the certificate verification process, which is fundamental to establishing trust in secure communications between mobile applications and remote servers.
The technical flaw manifests in the application's lack of proper certificate chain validation and trust verification mechanisms. When the Office Zombie application establishes connections to SSL servers, it fails to perform essential certificate checks including issuer validation, expiration date verification, and proper certificate signature validation. This omission allows malicious actors to deploy man-in-the-middle attacks by presenting forged certificates that appear legitimate to the vulnerable application. The flaw operates at the transport layer security validation level, where the application should enforce certificate pinning or trust store validation but instead accepts any certificate presented by the server.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability exposes users to significant data compromise risks as attackers can intercept and manipulate communications between the infected application and backend servers. The threat landscape for such vulnerabilities aligns with ATT&CK technique T1041, which describes data from network shared drives, and CWE-295, which specifically addresses improper certificate validation. Attackers can leverage this weakness to capture sensitive user information, credentials, or business data transmitted through the application's network connections, potentially leading to identity theft, financial fraud, or corporate espionage.
The security implications extend beyond simple data interception, as this vulnerability undermines the fundamental security model of SSL/TLS protocols that mobile applications rely upon for secure communications. The application's failure to implement proper certificate validation creates a persistent risk for all users who install and utilize this version of the Office Zombie application. Organizations using or developing mobile applications should consider this vulnerability as part of their broader mobile security posture assessment, particularly when evaluating applications that handle sensitive data or require secure network communications. The vulnerability represents a classic example of insufficient cryptographic implementation that violates established security best practices and industry standards for mobile application security.