CVE-2014-7011 in Mobile
Summary
by MITRE
The NWTC Mobile (aka com.dub.app.nwtc) application 1.4.17 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 • 09/25/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2014-7011 affects the NWTC Mobile application version 1.4.17 for Android operating systems, presenting a critical security flaw in the application's SSL/TLS certificate verification mechanism. This weakness creates a significant attack surface that enables malicious actors to perform man-in-the-middle attacks against users of the application. The vulnerability stems from the application's failure to properly validate X.509 certificates presented by SSL servers during secure communication establishment, effectively undermining the fundamental security guarantees that SSL/TLS protocols are designed to provide.
The technical flaw manifests as a complete absence of certificate validation within the application's secure communication stack. When the NWTC Mobile application establishes connections to remote servers using SSL/TLS, it does not perform the essential step of verifying that the server's X.509 certificate is properly signed by a trusted Certificate Authority, has not expired, and matches the expected server identity. This absence of certificate verification creates a trust relationship that can be easily exploited by attackers who can present forged certificates that appear legitimate to the application. The vulnerability directly maps to CWE-295, which specifically addresses "Improper Certificate Validation," and represents a failure in implementing proper certificate pinning or validation mechanisms.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability exposes users to severe security risks including data interception, credential theft, and unauthorized access to sensitive information. Attackers can create malicious certificates that the application will accept as legitimate, allowing them to decrypt and modify communications between users and backend servers. This could enable attackers to capture login credentials, personal data, financial information, or other sensitive content transmitted through the application. The impact extends beyond individual user privacy to potentially compromise organizational security if the application handles corporate data or serves as a gateway to enterprise systems. The vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1041, which covers "Exfiltration Over C2 Channel," and T1566, which addresses "Phishing for Information," as attackers can exploit this weakness to establish persistent access and harvest sensitive data.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability must focus on implementing proper certificate validation mechanisms within the application's secure communication framework. The recommended approach involves implementing certificate pinning, where the application explicitly trusts specific certificate authorities or certificate fingerprints rather than relying on the default trust store. Developers should implement certificate validation that checks certificate expiration dates, verifies certificate chains against trusted CAs, and ensures hostname matching between the certificate and the target server. Additionally, the application should implement proper error handling for certificate validation failures and ensure that all SSL/TLS connections are properly configured to reject untrusted certificates. Organizations should also consider implementing network-level monitoring to detect unusual certificate behavior and establish secure communication protocols that enforce certificate validation. The fix should align with industry best practices outlined in NIST SP 800-52 for certificate management and should be validated through comprehensive security testing to ensure that the implementation effectively prevents the exploitation of this vulnerability.