CVE-2014-5948 in Obama for America
Summary
by MITRE
The Obama for America (aka com.barackobama.ofa) application 1.02 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 • 09/07/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2014-5948 affects the Obama for America mobile application version 1.02 for android platforms, representing a critical security flaw in the application's implementation of secure communication protocols. This issue manifests as a failure in certificate verification mechanisms that should normally validate the authenticity of SSL/TLS server certificates during network communications. The application's insecure implementation creates a significant attack surface that can be exploited by malicious actors positioned within the network infrastructure between the mobile device and target servers. The vulnerability directly impacts the application's ability to establish trust with legitimate servers while simultaneously enabling attackers to impersonate these servers through malicious certificate manipulation.
The technical root cause of this vulnerability stems from the application's failure to properly validate X.509 certificates during SSL handshakes, which constitutes a violation of fundamental secure communication practices. This flaw allows the application to accept any certificate presented by a server without performing the necessary cryptographic verification steps that would normally confirm the certificate's validity and authenticity. The implementation error creates a trust relationship that can be easily compromised by attackers who can generate or obtain fraudulent certificates that appear legitimate to the vulnerable application. This weakness aligns with CWE-295, which specifically addresses improper certificate validation in secure communication protocols, and represents a direct violation of the cryptographic security requirements outlined in industry standards such as NIST SP 800-57 and RFC 5280.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data interception, as it enables comprehensive man-in-the-middle attacks that can compromise sensitive user information and communications. Attackers can exploit this weakness to decrypt and modify communications between the mobile application and its backend servers, potentially gaining access to personal user data, authentication credentials, or other sensitive information transmitted through the application. The vulnerability affects the application's integrity and confidentiality guarantees, undermining the security assurances that users expect when engaging with official campaign communications. Mobile security frameworks such as those defined in the OWASP Mobile Security Project and the Mobile Application Security Verification Standard (MASVS) consider this type of certificate validation failure to be a critical weakness that compromises the fundamental security properties of mobile applications.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability require immediate implementation of proper certificate validation mechanisms within the application's network communication layer. Security professionals should implement certificate pinning techniques that explicitly define trusted certificate authorities or specific certificate fingerprints that the application will accept. The fix should incorporate robust certificate validation routines that verify certificate chains, check certificate expiration dates, and validate certificate signatures against trusted root certificates. Organizations should also consider implementing certificate transparency monitoring and regular security audits of their mobile applications to identify similar implementation flaws. This vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of following established security frameworks such as the NIST Cybersecurity Framework and the ISO/IEC 27001 information security management standards, which emphasize the necessity of proper cryptographic implementation and validation in all security-sensitive applications. The remediation process should include comprehensive testing of certificate validation logic and integration of security scanning tools to prevent similar issues in future mobile application deployments.