CVE-2014-6668 in African Radios Live
Summary
by MITRE
The African Radios Live (aka com.nana.africanradioslive) application 1.0.6 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 • 09/12/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2014-6668 affects the African Radios Live Android application version 1.0.6, representing a critical security flaw in the application's implementation of secure communication protocols. This weakness resides in 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 directly impacts the application's ability to establish trust with remote servers, fundamentally undermining the security assurances that SSL/TLS encryption is designed to provide.
The technical flaw manifests as a complete absence of certificate validation mechanisms within the application's network communication stack. When the application establishes connections to remote servers, it fails to perform the essential verification steps that should confirm the authenticity and legitimacy of server certificates. This omission means that the application will accept any certificate presented by a server, regardless of whether it was issued by a trusted Certificate Authority or if it properly matches the expected server identity. The implementation violates fundamental security principles outlined in the OWASP Mobile Security Project and aligns with CWE-295, which specifically addresses improper certificate validation in secure communication implementations.
The operational impact of this vulnerability creates severe consequences for users of the affected application. Attackers can execute successful man-in-the-middle attacks by presenting crafted certificates that appear legitimate to the vulnerable application. This capability allows adversaries to intercept, modify, or steal sensitive information transmitted between the application and its servers, including user credentials, personal data, and potentially financial information. The vulnerability is particularly dangerous because it affects an application that likely handles user preferences, streaming content, and potentially personal identifiers, making it attractive to threat actors seeking to exploit user trust.
The security implications extend beyond simple data theft to include potential system compromise and privacy violations. Users connecting to servers through this vulnerable application cannot be certain that their communications remain private or that they are interacting with legitimate services. The attack vector is particularly effective because it requires no sophisticated technical skills from the attacker, making it accessible to a broad range of threat actors. This vulnerability directly maps to techniques described in the MITRE ATT&CK framework under the 'Credential Access' and 'Initial Access' phases, where adversaries establish trust relationships with victims to gain access to sensitive resources.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability require immediate implementation of proper certificate validation mechanisms within the application. Developers must implement certificate pinning techniques to ensure that only specific certificates or certificate authorities are accepted for validation. The application should incorporate robust certificate chain validation procedures that verify certificate signatures, expiration dates, and proper hostname matching. Additionally, implementing certificate transparency checks and maintaining up-to-date trust stores will significantly reduce the risk of accepting fraudulent certificates. Security professionals should also consider implementing network monitoring to detect unusual certificate behavior and establish proper security testing protocols to validate certificate handling mechanisms before application deployment. Organizations should also consider implementing network-level protections such as SSL/TLS inspection and monitoring to detect and prevent man-in-the-middle attacks targeting vulnerable applications.