CVE-2014-6788 in Oman News
Summary
by MITRE
The Oman News (aka com.oman.news.rmtzlnbuooordciw) application 1.0 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-2014-6788 affects the Oman News Android application version 1.0, specifically targeting its implementation of secure communication protocols. This flaw represents a critical security weakness in the application's approach to network security and certificate validation. The application fails to properly validate X.509 certificates presented by SSL servers during secure connections, creating a significant attack surface that adversaries can exploit to compromise the integrity of communications between the mobile client and remote servers.
The technical nature of this vulnerability stems from the application's improper handling of SSL/TLS certificate verification mechanisms. When establishing secure connections, the application should validate the server's X.509 certificate against trusted certificate authorities and verify that the certificate matches the expected domain. However, the Oman News application bypasses these essential validation steps, allowing attackers to present fraudulent certificates that appear legitimate to the application. This failure directly violates fundamental security principles of certificate-based authentication and trust establishment in secure communications.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability exposes users to significant risks including man-in-the-middle attacks where attackers can intercept and manipulate communications between the mobile application and backend servers. The implications extend beyond simple data interception to potential credential theft, session hijacking, and unauthorized access to sensitive information that users expect to be protected through secure communication channels. Attackers can exploit this weakness to impersonate legitimate servers and gain access to user data, potentially compromising personal information and business-critical data flows.
The security impact of this vulnerability aligns with CWE-295, which addresses improper certificate validation in security protocols, and represents a clear violation of secure coding practices for mobile applications. This weakness falls under the ATT&CK technique T1046 for network service scanning and T1566 for credential harvesting through social engineering, as attackers can leverage the insecure communication channel to extract sensitive information. Organizations and developers should recognize this as a critical flaw requiring immediate remediation, particularly given the mobile application's potential access to personal and potentially sensitive user information through the news delivery service.
The recommended mitigation strategy involves implementing proper certificate validation mechanisms within the application, including certificate pinning, validation against trusted certificate authorities, and ensuring that all SSL/TLS connections undergo rigorous verification before establishing secure communication channels. Additionally, developers should implement certificate transparency checks and consider using secure communication libraries that properly handle certificate validation as part of their application architecture. Regular security assessments and code reviews should be conducted to ensure that similar vulnerabilities do not exist in other network communication components of the application.