CVE-2017-9568 in Mobile Banking App
Summary
by MITRE
The financial-plus-mobile-banking/id731070564 app 3.0.3 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-2017-9568 affects the financial-plus-mobile-banking/id731070564 iOS application version 3.0.3, representing a critical security flaw in the mobile banking ecosystem. This issue stems from the application's failure to properly validate X.509 certificates during SSL/TLS communications, creating a significant pathway for malicious actors to compromise user data and financial transactions. The vulnerability directly impacts the fundamental security infrastructure that mobile banking applications rely upon to establish trust between client and server components.
The technical flaw manifests as a complete absence of certificate verification mechanisms within the application's secure communication stack. When the iOS app establishes connections to backend servers, it fails to perform the essential X.509 certificate validation steps that should confirm the server's identity and ensure the authenticity of the certificate authority that issued the digital certificate. This omission places the application into a state where it accepts any certificate presented by a server, regardless of whether it was legitimately issued by a trusted certificate authority or if it has been tampered with by an attacker. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-295, which specifically addresses "Improper Certificate Validation," and represents a classic example of weak cryptographic implementation that undermines the entire SSL/TLS security model.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends far beyond simple data interception, as it enables sophisticated man-in-the-middle attacks that can completely compromise the security posture of mobile banking users. Attackers can exploit this flaw by presenting maliciously crafted certificates to unsuspecting users, effectively allowing them to impersonate legitimate banking servers and intercept all communications between the mobile application and the financial institution's backend systems. This capability enables attackers to capture sensitive user credentials, transaction details, account balances, and other confidential financial information. The vulnerability creates an environment where attackers can manipulate financial transactions, redirect funds, and conduct fraudulent activities while maintaining complete operational invisibility to both users and security monitoring systems. This flaw directly maps to tactics described in the ATT&CK framework under T1071.004 for Application Layer Protocol: DNS and T1566 for Phishing, as it enables attackers to establish fraudulent communication channels that bypass normal security controls.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2017-9568 require immediate implementation of proper certificate validation mechanisms within the mobile banking application. Organizations must ensure that all SSL/TLS connections implement strict certificate pinning, where the application maintains a trusted list of certificate fingerprints or public keys that are expected to be present in legitimate server certificates. The implementation should include proper certificate chain validation, expiration checking, and revocation status verification through mechanisms such as OCSP stapling or CRL checking. Additionally, the application should implement certificate transparency monitoring to detect and prevent the issuance of fraudulent certificates for domains associated with the banking service. Security hardening measures should also include regular security assessments and code reviews to prevent similar issues in future application versions, with particular attention to the secure implementation of cryptographic libraries and SSL/TLS communication protocols. The vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of maintaining robust certificate validation processes in mobile financial applications and highlights the need for comprehensive security testing throughout the software development lifecycle to prevent such fundamental security flaws from reaching production environments.