CVE-2014-7773 in Cleveland Football STREAM
Summary
by MITRE
The Cleveland Football STREAM (aka com.appstronautme.clevelandfootballstream) application 2.1.0 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 • 10/18/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2014-7773 affects the Cleveland Football STREAM Android application version 2.1.0, representing a critical security flaw in the 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 and system integrity. The vulnerability specifically impacts the application's network security framework, where it neglects to perform certificate verification against trusted certificate authorities, leaving users exposed to sophisticated man-in-the-middle attacks that can intercept and manipulate sensitive information transmitted between the mobile device and remote servers.
This technical flaw fundamentally undermines the cryptographic security measures that SSL/TLS protocols are designed to provide, creating a scenario where attackers can present fraudulent certificates to establish fake secure connections with the application. The absence of proper certificate validation means that the application accepts any certificate presented by a server, regardless of its authenticity or trustworthiness, which directly violates established security best practices and industry standards. According to CWE-295, this vulnerability represents a failure to validate certificates, which is classified as a weakness in the certificate validation process that can lead to various security breaches including data interception, session hijacking, and unauthorized access to sensitive user information. The vulnerability operates at the application layer where secure communication protocols should enforce strict certificate validation, yet the application fails to implement proper certificate pinning or trust verification mechanisms that would normally prevent such attacks.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data interception, as it enables attackers to not only read sensitive information but also to modify data in transit, impersonate legitimate services, and potentially gain access to user accounts or personal data. Mobile applications that handle user credentials, financial information, or personal communications are particularly vulnerable to exploitation, as the attacker can create a convincing fake server that appears legitimate to the application. The attack vector relies on the attacker's ability to position themselves between the application and the legitimate server, intercepting communications and presenting a forged certificate that appears to be from a trusted source. This vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1041, which describes techniques for data manipulation and interception, and T1566, which covers social engineering and credential access methods that can be facilitated through such certificate validation failures.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability require immediate implementation of proper SSL certificate validation mechanisms within the application. Developers must implement certificate pinning to ensure that the application only accepts certificates from specific trusted authorities or specific certificate fingerprints, rather than accepting any certificate presented by a server. The application should enforce certificate chain validation against trusted root certificates, implement proper certificate expiration checking, and utilize secure communication libraries that properly handle certificate verification. Additionally, the application should be updated to include certificate revocation checking and implement proper error handling for certificate validation failures. Organizations should also consider implementing network monitoring solutions to detect unusual certificate behavior and establish secure development practices that include regular security code reviews and penetration testing to identify similar vulnerabilities in other applications. The remediation process must address the fundamental architectural flaw in the application's security model and ensure that all network communications are properly secured through validated certificate verification processes that prevent the exploitation patterns associated with this specific vulnerability class.