CVE-2014-6772 in United Educational CU
Summary
by MITRE
The United Educational CU (aka com.metova.cuae.uecu) application 1.0.27 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 • 09/16/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2014-6772 affects the United Educational CU Android application version 1.0.27, 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 connections, creating a significant attack surface that adversaries can exploit to compromise user data and system integrity. The vulnerability specifically impacts the application's secure communication protocols, undermining the fundamental security assurances that SSL/TLS encryption is designed to provide.
The technical flaw manifests as a lack of certificate validation mechanisms within the application's network communication stack. When the application establishes secure connections to remote servers, it fails to perform the essential step of verifying the authenticity and validity of SSL certificates presented by the servers. This omission allows attackers to intercept communications and present forged certificates that appear legitimate to the vulnerable application. The weakness directly violates established security protocols and represents a classic example of improper certificate validation, which is categorized under CWE-295 in the Common Weakness Enumeration framework. The application essentially trusts any certificate presented without performing the necessary checks against trusted certificate authorities or validating certificate properties such as expiration dates, subject names, and cryptographic signatures.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability creates severe implications for user security and data protection within the financial services context. The application's failure to verify server certificates enables man-in-the-middle attacks where attackers can intercept and modify sensitive information transmitted between users and the application's backend services. This includes potentially compromising user credentials, financial data, transaction details, and other confidential information that users expect to be protected through secure communication channels. The impact extends beyond simple data theft to potential financial fraud and identity theft scenarios, particularly given that the application is designed for educational financial services. This vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1046 which involves network service scanning and T1566 which encompasses credential harvesting through social engineering or network attacks, though the specific mechanism here is the failure to validate certificates rather than active credential theft.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability must address both immediate remediation and long-term architectural improvements. The primary solution involves implementing proper certificate validation mechanisms that verify certificate chains against trusted root certificates, check certificate expiration dates, and validate domain name matching. Application developers should integrate robust SSL certificate pinning where appropriate, ensuring that only specific certificates or certificate authorities are accepted for communication. Network administrators should implement monitoring solutions to detect unusual certificate behavior and establish regular security audits of mobile applications. The fix should also include updating the application to properly handle certificate validation errors by either rejecting connections or alerting users when certificate validation fails. Additionally, implementing certificate transparency mechanisms and regular security assessments can help prevent similar vulnerabilities from emerging in future versions. Organizations should also consider implementing network-level security controls such as deep packet inspection and SSL/TLS monitoring to detect and prevent exploitation attempts. The vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of cryptographic best practices in mobile application development and highlights the need for comprehensive security testing throughout the software development lifecycle.