CVE-2014-7707 in Outdoor Design And Living
Summary
by MITRE
The Outdoor Design And Living (aka com.pocketmagsau.outdoordesignandliving) application @7F080181 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 • 10/15/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2014-7707 affects the Outdoor Design And Living Android application, specifically targeting its implementation of secure communication protocols. This weakness resides in the application's failure to properly validate X.509 certificates during SSL/TLS connections, creating a critical security gap that exposes users to sophisticated man-in-the-middle attacks. The affected application version demonstrates a fundamental flaw in its cryptographic security model, where certificate verification mechanisms are either absent or improperly implemented, allowing attackers to establish fraudulent secure connections with malicious intent.
The technical flaw manifests as a complete absence of certificate pinning or validation procedures within the application's network communication stack. When the application attempts to establish secure connections to remote servers, it fails to verify the authenticity of the SSL certificates presented by those servers. This vulnerability directly maps to CWE-295, which addresses the improper certificate validation in secure communications. The implementation essentially trusts any certificate presented by a server, regardless of its legitimacy or whether it has been issued by a trusted certificate authority. Attackers can exploit this weakness by generating and presenting crafted certificates that appear legitimate to the vulnerable application, thereby establishing secure-looking connections while actually intercepting or manipulating all transmitted data.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data theft, encompassing comprehensive session hijacking and data manipulation capabilities for threat actors. An attacker positioned within the network traffic path can seamlessly impersonate legitimate servers, potentially gaining access to user credentials, personal information, and any sensitive data transmitted through the vulnerable application. This weakness creates a persistent threat vector that remains active as long as the vulnerable application is installed on user devices, making it particularly dangerous for applications handling personal or financial information. The vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1046, which covers network service scanning, and T1566, which involves credential harvesting through social engineering, as the compromised application becomes a conduit for both information disclosure and potential further compromise of user accounts.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability require immediate implementation of proper certificate validation mechanisms within the application's networking layer. Developers must implement certificate pinning, which involves hardcoding trusted certificate fingerprints or public keys within the application to verify against server certificates. Additionally, the application should enforce certificate chain validation, ensuring that certificates are issued by trusted authorities and have not expired or been revoked. Security updates should include proper error handling for certificate validation failures, with the application gracefully rejecting insecure connections rather than proceeding with unverified communications. Organizations should also consider implementing network-level monitoring to detect anomalous certificate behavior and establish regular security audits to identify similar implementation flaws across their mobile applications portfolio. The vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of following security best practices outlined in OWASP Mobile Top 10 and NIST SP 800-53 guidelines for mobile application security.