CVE-2017-9560 in App
Summary
by MITRE
The cayuga-lake-national-bank/id1151601539 app 4.0.1 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 • 10/18/2019
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2017-9560 affects the cayuga-lake-national-bank/id1151601539 mobile application version 4.0.1 for iOS devices, representing a critical security flaw in the application's cryptographic implementation. 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. The vulnerability directly impacts the application's ability to establish secure communications with backend servers, fundamentally undermining the trust model that secure mobile banking applications must maintain. According to CWE-295, this represents a weakness in the validation of certificate chains, specifically the absence of proper certificate verification mechanisms that should be implemented by all applications handling sensitive user information.
The technical flaw manifests as a complete absence of certificate pinning or validation procedures within the mobile banking application's network communication stack. When the iOS application attempts to establish a secure connection to the bank's servers, it fails to perform the necessary checks that would normally verify the authenticity of the server's SSL certificate against trusted Certificate Authorities. This absence creates a man-in-the-middle attack vector where malicious actors can intercept communications by presenting forged certificates that appear legitimate to the vulnerable application. The vulnerability operates at the transport layer security level, specifically targeting the SSL/TLS handshake process where certificate validation should occur, making it particularly dangerous for financial applications that handle sensitive user credentials and transaction data.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data interception, as it enables sophisticated attack scenarios that can lead to complete account compromise and financial fraud. Attackers can leverage this weakness to impersonate legitimate banking servers and capture sensitive information such as user credentials, account numbers, transaction details, and personal identification information. The vulnerability is particularly concerning in the context of mobile banking applications, where users may be conducting transactions in public environments where network interception is more likely. According to ATT&CK framework technique T1566, this vulnerability provides an entry point for initial access through credential harvesting, while also enabling data exfiltration and persistence mechanisms that could be exploited for extended compromise of user accounts.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2017-9560 must address both immediate remediation and long-term architectural improvements to prevent similar issues in future mobile banking applications. The primary recommendation involves implementing proper SSL certificate validation mechanisms that include certificate pinning, where the application maintains a whitelist of trusted certificates or public keys and verifies that the server presents one of these expected values. Additionally, organizations should implement certificate transparency monitoring and regular security audits of their mobile applications to detect similar vulnerabilities. The fix should also incorporate proper error handling for certificate validation failures, ensuring that connections are terminated immediately when certificate verification fails rather than proceeding with potentially compromised communications. Security practitioners should also consider implementing additional layers of authentication such as multi-factor authentication and transaction monitoring to detect anomalous behavior that might indicate successful exploitation of this vulnerability.