CVE-2014-7731 in Radio de la Cato
Summary
by MITRE
The Radio de la Cato (aka com.radio.de.la.cato) application 2.0 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 • 10/16/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2014-7731 affects the Radio de la Cato Android application version 2.0, presenting a critical security flaw in the application's 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 significant attack surface that compromises the integrity of data transmission between the mobile client and remote servers. The vulnerability directly impacts the application's ability to establish trust with legitimate servers while simultaneously enabling malicious actors to exploit the communication channel through man-in-the-middle attacks.
The technical flaw manifests as a complete absence of certificate verification mechanisms within the application's SSL implementation, which falls under the category of improper certificate validation as classified by CWE-295. This weakness allows attackers to present fraudulent certificates that appear legitimate to the application, effectively bypassing the security assurances that SSL/TLS protocols are designed to provide. The vulnerability represents a fundamental failure in the application's security architecture, where the absence of certificate pinning, certificate chain validation, and trust verification creates an environment where attackers can intercept and manipulate encrypted communications without detection. This flaw specifically enables credential theft, data exfiltration, and the injection of malicious content into the application's communication streams.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data interception, as it fundamentally undermines the security model that users expect from mobile applications that handle sensitive information. Attackers can leverage this weakness to impersonate legitimate services, capture user credentials, and access private data transmitted through the application's network connections. The vulnerability's exploitation aligns with several techniques documented in the ATT&CK framework under the T1041 and T1071 categories, which describe command and control communications and application layer protocol usage respectively. This weakness particularly affects user privacy and data confidentiality, as the application fails to provide the cryptographic protection that users rely upon when engaging with mobile services that may handle personal or financial information.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability require immediate implementation of proper certificate validation mechanisms within the application's network stack. The recommended approach includes implementing certificate pinning to ensure that the application only accepts specific certificates or certificate authorities, thereby preventing attackers from substituting fraudulent certificates. Additionally, developers should implement robust certificate chain validation that verifies certificate signatures, expiration dates, and revocation status through mechanisms such as OCSP stapling or CRL checking. The implementation should also include proper error handling for certificate validation failures, ensuring that connections are terminated when certificate verification fails rather than proceeding with unverified communications. Organizations should also consider implementing network monitoring solutions to detect anomalous certificate behavior and establish security policies that require regular security assessments of mobile applications to identify similar vulnerabilities in other components of their mobile ecosystem.