CVE-2014-5835 in Club Personal
Summary
by MITRE
The Club Personal (aka com.globant.clubpersonal) application 2.6 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 • 09/02/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2014-5835 resides within the Club Personal mobile application version 2.6 for Android platforms, representing a critical security flaw in the application's cryptographic implementation. This issue stems from the application's failure to properly validate X.509 certificates during SSL/TLS communications, creating a significant attack surface that adversaries can exploit to compromise user data integrity and confidentiality.
The technical flaw manifests as a complete absence of certificate verification mechanisms within the application's secure communication layer. When the Club Personal application establishes connections to remote servers using SSL/TLS protocols, it fails to perform the essential certificate validation steps that should confirm the server's identity against trusted certificate authorities. This weakness directly violates established security principles and creates a pathway for man-in-the-middle attacks where malicious actors can present fraudulent certificates to intercept and manipulate communications between users and legitimate servers.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability exposes users to severe risks including credential theft, data interception, and unauthorized access to sensitive personal information. Attackers can exploit this flaw by positioning themselves between the user and the server, presenting forged certificates that appear legitimate to the vulnerable application. The impact extends beyond simple data theft to potentially enable session hijacking, financial fraud, and other malicious activities that could compromise user accounts and personal data. This vulnerability particularly affects users who rely on the application for accessing banking services, personal accounts, or other sensitive information repositories.
The security implications of this vulnerability align with CWE-295, which specifically addresses improper certificate validation in SSL/TLS implementations, and represents a clear violation of the principle of certificate pinning or proper certificate chain validation. According to ATT&CK framework category T1046, this vulnerability enables adversaries to conduct network service scanning and can be leveraged to establish persistent access points. The flaw essentially removes the cryptographic security guarantees that SSL/TLS protocols are designed to provide, making the application's communications as vulnerable as if no encryption were present at all.
Mitigation strategies should focus on implementing proper certificate validation procedures including certificate pinning, certificate chain validation, and the use of trusted certificate authorities. The application developers must ensure that all SSL/TLS connections perform thorough certificate verification, including checking certificate expiration dates, validating certificate signatures, and confirming that certificates are issued by trusted certificate authorities. Additionally, implementing certificate transparency measures and regular security audits can help prevent similar vulnerabilities from emerging in future versions of the application. Users should be advised to avoid using this vulnerable application until proper security patches are implemented, and organizations should consider implementing network monitoring to detect potential exploitation attempts.