CVE-2014-5918 in talk freely
Summary
by MITRE
The Secret Circle - talk freely (aka com.easyxapp.secret) application 2.2.00.26 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 • 09/06/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2014-5918 affects the Secret Circle - talk freely Android application version 2.2.00.26, representing a critical security flaw in the application's cryptographic implementation. This issue falls under the category of improper certificate validation, where the application fails to properly verify X.509 certificates presented by SSL servers during secure communications. The vulnerability stems from the application's lack of certificate pinning mechanisms and insufficient certificate validation procedures, creating a significant attack surface for malicious actors. According to CWE-295, this represents a weakness in certificate validation that directly enables man-in-the-middle attacks by allowing attackers to present fraudulent certificates that the application will accept without proper scrutiny.
The technical flaw manifests when the application establishes SSL connections to remote servers, as it does not perform the necessary certificate verification steps required to ensure the authenticity of the server being connected to. This includes failing to validate certificate chains, check certificate expiration dates, or verify certificate signatures against trusted root authorities. The absence of proper certificate validation means that an attacker positioned between the application and the legitimate server can intercept communications and present a malicious certificate that the application will accept as legitimate. This vulnerability directly enables attackers to perform man-in-the-middle attacks, where they can decrypt, modify, or redirect communications between the user and the server, potentially compromising sensitive data exchanges.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe and multifaceted, affecting both user privacy and data security within the application's communication framework. Users of the Secret Circle application become vulnerable to various attack vectors including credential theft, session hijacking, and data interception attacks. The vulnerability particularly impacts the application's ability to maintain secure communications, as attackers can impersonate legitimate servers and gain access to user data, private messages, or authentication credentials. This weakness undermines the fundamental security assurances that users expect from secure messaging applications and creates opportunities for extensive data breaches. The attack vector aligns with ATT&CK technique T1573.002 for secure channel interception and T1041 for data compression and encryption, demonstrating how the vulnerability can be exploited to compromise the confidentiality and integrity of communications.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2014-5918 should focus on implementing robust certificate validation mechanisms within the application's SSL/TLS communication stack. The primary recommendation involves implementing certificate pinning, where the application explicitly trusts specific certificate fingerprints or public keys rather than relying on the entire certificate chain validation process. This approach ensures that even if an attacker can create a valid certificate, it must match the pre-established trusted certificate to be accepted. Additionally, developers should implement proper certificate chain validation, including checking certificate expiration dates, verifying certificate signatures against trusted root authorities, and implementing certificate revocation checking through CRL or OCSP mechanisms. The application should also enforce strict hostname validation to prevent certificate spoofing attacks and consider implementing certificate transparency monitoring to detect unauthorized certificate issuance. These measures align with industry best practices and security frameworks such as NIST SP 800-57 for cryptographic key management and ISO/IEC 27001 for information security controls.