CVE-2014-6018 in global beauty research
Summary
by MITRE
The global beauty research (aka com.appems.topgirl) application 1.6 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 • 09/10/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2014-6018 affects the global beauty research application version 1.6 for android platforms, representing a critical security flaw in the application's implementation of secure communication protocols. 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 integrity and confidentiality. The vulnerability directly impacts the application's ability to establish trust with remote servers, undermining the fundamental security assurances that secure communication protocols are designed to provide. From a security perspective, this represents a failure in certificate validation mechanisms that should be implemented as part of standard secure coding practices and mobile application security frameworks.
The technical flaw manifests in the application's SSL certificate verification process where it accepts all certificates without proper validation of their authenticity, issuer, and trust chain. This weakness allows attackers to perform man-in-the-middle attacks by presenting maliciously crafted certificates that appear legitimate to the vulnerable application. The certificate validation process should typically involve checking certificate signatures, verifying the certificate chain against trusted root authorities, and ensuring certificate expiration dates are valid. However, in this case, the application bypasses these critical verification steps, leaving users exposed to potential data interception, modification, and theft. The vulnerability operates at the transport layer security level where secure communication between mobile applications and backend servers should be maintained through proper certificate validation.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data exposure, as it enables attackers to not only eavesdrop on communications but also to actively modify data in transit. This creates opportunities for credential theft, session hijacking, and the injection of malicious content into the application's communication channels. Users of the global beauty research application may unknowingly transmit sensitive information including personal data, login credentials, or other confidential information through insecure channels that are susceptible to manipulation. The vulnerability is particularly concerning in mobile environments where applications often handle sensitive user information and may be operating in untrusted network environments such as public wifi networks where man-in-the-middle attacks are more prevalent.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2014-6018 should focus on implementing proper certificate validation mechanisms within the application's SSL/TLS implementation. This includes enforcing certificate chain validation, implementing certificate pinning where appropriate, and ensuring that the application validates certificate signatures against trusted certificate authorities. Security practitioners should also consider implementing certificate transparency checks and monitoring for certificate anomalies that may indicate potential attacks. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-295 which specifically addresses improper certificate validation in security protocols, and represents a significant concern from an ATT&CK framework perspective under the T1046 technique for network service scanning and T1566 for credential access through social engineering. Organizations should also implement network monitoring to detect suspicious certificate behavior and ensure that all mobile applications undergo comprehensive security testing including certificate validation testing before deployment. The fix requires complete reimplementation of the SSL/TLS certificate validation logic to ensure proper verification of certificate authenticity and trust chain integrity.