CVE-2014-7409 in Liburan Hemat
Summary
by MITRE
The Liburan Hemat (aka com.liburan.bro) application 1.0 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-2014-7409 represents a critical security flaw in the Liburan Hemat Android application version 1.0, specifically targeting the application's handling of SSL/TLS certificate validation mechanisms. This issue falls under the category of insufficient certificate verification, which directly undermines the fundamental security principles of secure communication channels. The application's failure to properly validate X.509 certificates from SSL servers creates a significant attack surface that malicious actors can exploit to compromise user data integrity and confidentiality.
The technical implementation flaw within the Liburan Hemat application demonstrates a complete absence of certificate pinning or proper certificate validation procedures during SSL handshakes. When an Android application establishes secure connections to remote servers, it should verify that the server's X.509 certificate is properly signed by a trusted Certificate Authority and that the certificate matches the expected server identity. However, this application bypasses these critical security checks entirely, allowing any certificate to be accepted regardless of its authenticity or trustworthiness. This behavior directly violates the core security requirements defined in industry standards such as the OWASP Mobile Security Project's M3 category for insecure communication and aligns with CWE-295, which specifically addresses improper certificate validation.
The operational impact of this vulnerability creates severe risks for users who interact with the application, particularly when conducting sensitive transactions or transmitting personal information. Attackers can leverage this weakness through man-in-the-middle attacks by presenting forged certificates that appear legitimate to the vulnerable application. This allows threat actors to intercept, modify, or steal sensitive user data including login credentials, personal information, financial details, and other confidential communications between the user's device and the application's backend servers. The vulnerability essentially provides attackers with a backdoor to compromise the entire communication channel, undermining the confidentiality and integrity guarantees that SSL/TLS protocols are designed to provide.
From an attacker's perspective, this vulnerability maps directly to several techniques within the MITRE ATT&CK framework, particularly those related to credential access and command and control operations. The ability to spoof servers and obtain sensitive information through crafted certificates enables attackers to perform session hijacking, data exfiltration, and identity theft operations. The vulnerability also aligns with ATT&CK technique T1046 for network service scanning and T1566 for credential harvesting, as attackers can leverage the lack of certificate validation to establish unauthorized communication channels. Organizations should consider implementing certificate pinning mechanisms and proper SSL certificate validation as part of their mobile application security requirements, following guidelines from NIST SP 800-52 and the Android Security Best Practices documentation.
The remediation approach for this vulnerability requires immediate implementation of proper SSL certificate validation mechanisms within the application. Developers must ensure that all SSL connections perform thorough certificate verification including checking certificate signatures, validating certificate chains, and confirming server identity through hostname matching. The application should implement certificate pinning strategies to prevent the acceptance of unauthorized certificates while maintaining compatibility with legitimate server certificates. Additionally, security testing should include comprehensive SSL certificate validation checks during penetration testing and security assessments to identify similar vulnerabilities in other mobile applications. Organizations should also consider implementing network monitoring to detect and alert on suspicious certificate validation behaviors that may indicate exploitation attempts.