CVE-2014-7710 in India Today Telugu
Summary
by MITRE
The India Today Telugu (aka com.magzter.indiatoday.telugu) application 3.02 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-2014-7710 affects the India Today Telugu Android application version 3.02, representing a critical security flaw in the mobile application's implementation of secure communications. This issue stems from the application's failure to properly validate X.509 certificates during SSL/TLS connections, creating a significant attack surface that adversaries can exploit to compromise user data integrity and confidentiality. The vulnerability specifically targets the certificate verification mechanism that should ensure secure communication between the mobile client and remote servers.
The technical flaw manifests as a complete absence of certificate validation within the application's SSL implementation, allowing attackers to perform man-in-the-middle attacks without detection. When the application establishes secure connections to its backend services, it accepts any certificate presented by the server without performing the necessary cryptographic verification steps that would normally confirm the certificate's authenticity and trustworthiness. This weakness directly violates fundamental security principles of certificate-based authentication and enables attackers to present fraudulent certificates that the application will accept as legitimate.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data interception to encompass comprehensive data compromise and system integrity violations. Attackers can exploit this flaw to impersonate legitimate servers and establish fraudulent communication channels with users' devices, potentially gaining access to sensitive user information, session tokens, or personal data transmitted through the application. The vulnerability creates a persistent security risk that remains active as long as the application is installed, affecting all users who interact with the application's network services and potentially exposing them to credential theft, financial fraud, or privacy violations.
This vulnerability maps directly to CWE-295, which specifically addresses "Improper Certificate Validation," and aligns with several ATT&CK tactics including T1041, where adversaries establish persistence through compromised communication channels. The weakness represents a failure in the application's secure coding practices and demonstrates a critical oversight in implementing proper cryptographic security measures. Organizations should implement mitigations including immediate certificate pinning implementation, regular security audits of mobile applications, and mandatory secure communication protocols that enforce certificate validation. The vulnerability underscores the importance of adhering to security standards such as those outlined in NIST SP 800-52 for certificate management and the OWASP Mobile Security Project guidelines for secure mobile application development.