CVE-2014-6899 in Jazeera Airways
Summary
by MITRE
The Jazeera Airways (aka com.winit.jazeeraairways) application 2.7 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 • 09/21/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2014-6899 affects the Jazeera Airways Android application version 2.7, presenting a critical security flaw in the application's SSL certificate verification mechanism. This weakness stems from the application's failure to properly validate X.509 certificates presented by SSL servers during secure communications, creating a significant attack surface that adversaries can exploit to compromise the integrity of network connections. The vulnerability specifically impacts the application's ability to establish secure communication channels with backend servers, which is fundamental to protecting sensitive user data and maintaining the confidentiality of transmitted information. According to CWE-295, this represents a classic certificate validation weakness where the application fails to properly validate the authenticity of SSL certificates, making it susceptible to various forms of man-in-the-middle attacks.
The technical implementation flaw manifests in the application's network security architecture where it accepts any SSL certificate without performing proper certificate chain validation, hostname verification, or signature validation. This insecure programming practice allows attackers to install a malicious certificate on a compromised server or intercept network traffic through proxy mechanisms to present a forged certificate that the application will accept as legitimate. The vulnerability directly relates to the absence of proper certificate pinning or validation routines that should verify the certificate's trust chain against known Certificate Authorities and ensure that the certificate's subject matches the target server's hostname. This weakness enables attackers to impersonate legitimate servers and potentially intercept or manipulate sensitive data transmitted between the mobile application and backend services, including user credentials, personal information, and transaction details.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data interception, as it fundamentally undermines the security model of the mobile application and compromises user trust in the service. Attackers exploiting this vulnerability can conduct sophisticated man-in-the-middle attacks to capture and modify sensitive communications, potentially leading to account takeovers, financial fraud, and unauthorized access to personal information. The vulnerability affects all users of the application who engage in secure communications with the backend services, making it a widespread security concern that could result in significant financial and reputational damage to Jazeera Airways. According to ATT&CK framework technique T1046, this vulnerability enables adversaries to establish persistent network access points and can be leveraged for data theft, service disruption, and further lateral movement within the network infrastructure. The lack of certificate verification essentially removes the application's ability to distinguish between legitimate and malicious servers, creating a dangerous environment where any attacker with network access can potentially compromise user sessions.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability must address both immediate remediation and long-term security architecture improvements. The primary fix involves implementing proper SSL certificate validation routines that verify certificate signatures, check certificate expiration dates, validate certificate chains against trusted CAs, and ensure hostname matching between the certificate and target server. Organizations should implement certificate pinning mechanisms to prevent the acceptance of unauthorized certificates, which aligns with security best practices outlined in OWASP Mobile Top 10 M3 and the Mobile Security Project guidelines. Additionally, the application should be updated to use secure networking libraries that properly handle certificate validation and avoid custom implementations that may introduce additional vulnerabilities. Network-level protections such as SSL inspection controls and intrusion detection systems can provide additional monitoring and detection capabilities. Regular security assessments and penetration testing should be conducted to verify that certificate validation mechanisms remain effective against evolving attack techniques, ensuring that the application maintains proper security posture against man-in-the-middle and related attacks. The vulnerability also highlights the importance of implementing proper security testing during the development lifecycle to identify and address such critical flaws before deployment.