CVE-2014-6979 in MiWay Insurance Ltd
Summary
by MITRE
The MiWay Insurance Ltd (aka com.MiWay.MD) application 1.2 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 • 09/24/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2014-6979 affects the MiWay Insurance Ltd Android application version 1.2, specifically targeting the application's SSL/TLS certificate verification mechanism. This represents a critical security flaw in the mobile application's cryptographic implementation that fundamentally undermines the integrity of secure communications between the client and server components. The application fails to properly validate X.509 certificates presented by SSL servers, creating a pathway for malicious actors to exploit the trust relationship that should exist between the mobile client and legitimate backend services. This weakness directly violates fundamental principles of secure communication protocols and exposes users to significant risk of data interception and manipulation.
The technical flaw manifests in the application's failure to implement proper certificate pinning or validation procedures that would normally occur during SSL handshakes. When an Android application establishes secure connections to remote servers, it should validate the presented certificate against trusted certificate authorities and verify that the certificate matches the expected server identity. In this case, the application accepts any certificate presented by a server without performing these essential verification steps, making it susceptible to man-in-the-middle attacks. The vulnerability specifically relates to the absence of certificate chain validation, hostname verification, and trust anchor validation that are standard requirements for secure SSL/TLS implementations. This flaw falls under the category of improper certificate validation as defined by CWE-295, which addresses the failure to validate certificates in secure communications.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data interception to encompass complete compromise of user data confidentiality and integrity. Attackers can exploit this weakness to establish fake servers that appear legitimate to the vulnerable application, allowing them to capture sensitive user information including personal identification details, insurance policy information, financial data, and other confidential communications. The vulnerability affects all users of the affected application version and creates a persistent threat vector that remains active as long as the application is installed and running on affected devices. This represents a significant risk to both individual user privacy and corporate data security, particularly given that the application handles insurance-related information that typically contains highly sensitive personal and financial data. The attack surface is further expanded by the fact that this vulnerability affects mobile applications that may be used in various network environments including public wifi networks where such attacks are more easily executed.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability require immediate attention from both application developers and security administrators. The primary remediation involves implementing proper SSL/TLS certificate validation within the application's networking code, ensuring that all certificate chains are validated against trusted certificate authorities and that hostname verification is performed. Developers should implement certificate pinning techniques to ensure that the application only accepts specific certificates or certificate authorities, preventing attackers from using fraudulent certificates. Additionally, the application should be updated to include proper error handling for certificate validation failures, ensuring that any connection attempts with untrusted certificates are rejected immediately. Security professionals should also consider implementing network-level monitoring to detect potential man-in-the-middle attacks and establish incident response procedures for handling potential data breaches. This vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of following secure coding practices and adheres to ATT&CK technique T1046 which involves network service scanning and T1566 which covers credential harvesting through social engineering, both of which can be facilitated by such certificate validation failures. Organizations should also implement regular security assessments of mobile applications to identify similar vulnerabilities and ensure compliance with industry standards such as those outlined in the OWASP Mobile Security Project and NIST guidelines for mobile application security.