CVE-2014-7393 in 100 Beauty Tips
Summary
by MITRE
The 100 Beauty Tips (aka com.ww100BeautyTipsApp) application 1.1 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 • 10/05/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2014-7393 affects the 100 Beauty Tips Android application version 1.1, specifically targeting the application's handling of secure communications through the Transport Layer Security protocol. This flaw represents a critical security weakness in the application's implementation of certificate verification mechanisms, creating an exploitable condition that undermines the fundamental security assurances provided by SSL/TLS encryption. The vulnerability stems from the application's failure to properly validate X.509 certificates presented by SSL servers during the connection establishment process, leaving users susceptible to sophisticated attack vectors that compromise the integrity and confidentiality of their data exchanges.
The technical implementation flaw manifests in the application's absence of proper certificate chain validation and trust verification procedures. When the application establishes connections to remote servers, it fails to perform essential checks such as certificate expiration validation, issuer verification, and hostname matching against the presented certificate. This omission creates a pathway for malicious actors to deploy man-in-the-middle attacks by presenting forged certificates that appear legitimate to the vulnerable application. The weakness directly aligns with CWE-295, which catalogs improper certificate validation issues, and represents a failure to implement proper certificate pinning or trust verification mechanisms that are standard requirements for secure mobile applications.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data interception, as it enables attackers to establish fraudulent communication channels that can facilitate various malicious activities. An attacker positioned between the user and the legitimate server can seamlessly intercept and modify data transmitted between the application and its backend services, potentially accessing sensitive user information, authentication credentials, or personal data. The vulnerability affects all users of the application who engage in network communications, making it particularly dangerous as it operates silently without user awareness. This weakness can be exploited to conduct session hijacking, data theft, or even to redirect users to malicious services that appear to be legitimate extensions of the application's functionality.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability require immediate implementation of proper certificate validation procedures within the application's network communication stack. The recommended approach involves implementing robust certificate pinning mechanisms that validate certificate chains against trusted authorities and maintain explicit trust stores with known good certificates. Organizations should also consider implementing certificate transparency checks and hostname verification to ensure that the certificates presented match the expected server identities. Additionally, the application should be updated to include proper error handling for certificate validation failures, ensuring that any certificate verification issues result in immediate connection termination rather than proceeding with potentially compromised communications. This vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of following secure coding practices and adhering to mobile security standards such as those outlined in the OWASP Mobile Security Project, which emphasizes the necessity of proper cryptographic implementation and secure communication protocols in mobile applications. The attack surface created by this vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1041, which describes data manipulation and interception activities that can be facilitated by applications with insufficient certificate validation mechanisms.