CVE-2017-14710 in Fashion Shopping
Summary
by MITRE
The Shein Group Ltd. "SHEIN - Fashion Shopping" app -- aka shein fashion-shopping/id878577184 -- for iOS 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 • 03/04/2020
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2017-14710 affects the Shein Group Ltd. SHEIN - Fashion Shopping mobile application for iOS devices. This represents a critical security flaw in the application's cryptographic implementation that fundamentally undermines the integrity of secure communications between the mobile client and remote servers. The vulnerability specifically resides in the application's failure to properly validate X.509 certificates during SSL/TLS connections, creating a significant attack surface that malicious actors can exploit to compromise user data and system integrity.
The technical flaw manifests as a complete absence of certificate verification within the application's SSL implementation. When the mobile application establishes secure connections to backend servers, it fails to perform the essential validation steps required to confirm the authenticity of server certificates. This includes checking certificate chains, verifying issuer signatures, validating domain names against certificate subjects, and ensuring certificates have not been revoked. The absence of these verification mechanisms creates a trust relationship that can be easily manipulated by attackers who possess the ability to intercept network traffic and present fraudulent certificates.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability exposes users to severe man-in-the-middle attacks where attackers can seamlessly impersonate legitimate Shein servers. An attacker positioned between the user's device and the company's servers can intercept and modify all communications, potentially accessing sensitive user information including personal details, payment information, and authentication credentials. The impact extends beyond individual user privacy concerns to encompass potential financial fraud, identity theft, and compromise of the company's intellectual property and business data. This vulnerability directly violates fundamental security principles outlined in industry standards such as CWE-295, which specifically addresses improper certificate validation in SSL/TLS implementations.
The security implications of this vulnerability align with multiple tactics and techniques documented in the MITRE ATT&CK framework, particularly under the credential access and defense evasion categories. Attackers can leverage this weakness to establish persistent access to user accounts and maintain stealthy surveillance of communications. The vulnerability's exploitation requires minimal technical skill and can be executed through standard network interception tools, making it particularly dangerous for widespread deployment. Organizations should recognize that this flaw represents a critical failure in the application's secure coding practices and demonstrates inadequate adherence to security best practices for mobile application development.
Effective mitigation strategies must address both immediate remediation and long-term architectural improvements. The primary solution involves implementing proper certificate pinning mechanisms that validate server certificates against known good certificates or public key fingerprints. Additionally, the application should enforce strict certificate validation procedures including chain of trust verification, expiration date checks, and revocation status verification. Organizations should also consider implementing certificate transparency monitoring and regular security audits to detect and prevent similar vulnerabilities in future releases. The remediation process must include comprehensive code review and security testing of all network communication components to ensure that similar flaws do not exist in other parts of the application's architecture.