CVE-2014-6858 in Mostafa Shemeas
Summary
by MITRE
The Mostafa Shemeas (aka com.mostafa.shemeas.website) 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 • 09/19/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2014-6858 represents a critical security flaw in the Mostafa Shemeas Android application version 1.0 that fundamentally undermines the integrity of secure communications. This application, designed to facilitate website access on mobile platforms, fails to implement proper certificate verification mechanisms when establishing SSL connections to remote servers. The absence of X.509 certificate validation creates a significant attack surface that enables malicious actors to execute successful man-in-the-middle attacks against unsuspecting users. The flaw operates at the core of the application's security architecture, where it trusts any certificate presented by a server without performing the essential validation steps required to ensure the authenticity and integrity of the communication channel.
From a technical perspective, the vulnerability stems from the application's failure to validate SSL/TLS certificates against trusted certificate authorities, which is a fundamental security practice in secure communications. The application does not perform certificate chain validation, does not check certificate expiration dates, and fails to verify the certificate's subject against the hostname being accessed. This deficiency allows attackers to generate and present fraudulent certificates that appear legitimate to the application, enabling them to intercept and potentially manipulate all data transmitted between the mobile device and the targeted servers. The vulnerability directly maps to CWE-295, which specifically addresses "Improper Certificate Validation" in security protocols, and represents a clear violation of secure coding practices that should be enforced in all applications handling sensitive data over network connections.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data interception to encompass comprehensive compromise of user privacy and data integrity. Mobile users who rely on the application for accessing sensitive information face potential exposure of personal data, login credentials, financial information, and other confidential communications. Attackers can exploit this weakness to conduct sophisticated surveillance operations, capture session tokens, and perform credential theft attacks that could lead to account takeovers and further lateral movement within compromised networks. The vulnerability affects the application's ability to provide the security assurances that users expect when communicating over secure channels, effectively nullifying the encryption benefits that SSL/TLS protocols are designed to provide. This weakness also aligns with ATT&CK technique T1041, which describes "Exfiltration Over C2 Channel" where adversaries can leverage compromised applications to establish persistent communication channels for data theft.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability must address both immediate remediation and long-term architectural improvements. The application developers should implement proper certificate validation by integrating established SSL/TLS validation libraries that perform comprehensive certificate chain verification against trusted certificate authorities. The solution must include certificate pinning mechanisms to prevent the acceptance of fraudulent certificates even if they are signed by trusted authorities. Additionally, the application should implement certificate expiration checks and hostname verification to ensure that certificates are valid and appropriate for the target server. Organizations should also consider implementing network-level monitoring to detect anomalous certificate behavior and establish secure coding guidelines that mandate proper SSL/TLS implementation practices. The remediation process should follow industry standards such as NIST SP 800-52 for certificate management and ensure compliance with established security frameworks that require robust certificate validation as a baseline security control.