CVE-2014-6877 in Personal Banking
Summary
by MITRE
The Santander Personal Banking (aka com.sovereign.santander) application 2.1 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 • 09/20/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2014-6877 affects the Santander Personal Banking Android application version 2.1, representing a critical security flaw in the mobile banking client's cryptographic implementation. This issue stems from the application's failure to properly validate X.509 certificates during SSL/TLS connections, creating a fundamental weakness in the authentication mechanism that protects sensitive financial data transmission between mobile users and banking servers.
The technical flaw manifests as a complete absence of certificate verification within the application's SSL implementation, allowing attackers to perform man-in-the-middle attacks by presenting forged certificates that appear legitimate to the vulnerable client. This weakness directly violates established security protocols and represents a failure in the application's trust validation process, where the client should verify certificate authenticity through proper certificate chain validation and trust store verification. The vulnerability falls under CWE-295, which specifically addresses improper certificate validation in security protocols, and aligns with ATT&CK technique T1041, which covers data compression and encryption techniques used to evade detection.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe and multifaceted, as it exposes users to potential financial fraud and data theft through various attack vectors. An attacker positioned between the user and the banking server can intercept and modify sensitive transactions, personal information, and authentication credentials without the application detecting the compromised connection. This creates a dangerous environment where users believe they are communicating securely with their legitimate banking service while actually interacting with an attacker's malicious server. The vulnerability particularly affects mobile banking transactions where users expect end-to-end encryption and server authentication, making it a prime target for financial malware and credential theft operations.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability require immediate implementation of proper certificate validation mechanisms within the application. The fix must include enabling certificate chain validation, implementing trust store verification, and ensuring proper hostname checking during SSL handshakes. Security patches should enforce certificate pinning where appropriate and establish robust certificate validation routines that align with industry standards such as those defined in RFC 5280 for X.509 certificate validation. Organizations should also implement continuous monitoring of SSL/TLS configurations and conduct regular security assessments to prevent similar vulnerabilities in future mobile banking applications. The remediation process must address the root cause by ensuring all network communications undergo proper cryptographic validation before establishing trust relationships with remote servers.