CVE-2018-11922 in Snapdragon Auto
Summary
by MITRE • 11/26/2024
Wrong configuration in Touch Pal application can collect user behavior data without awareness by the user.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/10/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2018-11922 represents a significant privacy risk within the Touch Pal application ecosystem. This flaw stems from improper configuration settings that allow the application to collect comprehensive user behavior data without explicit user consent or awareness. The vulnerability specifically affects mobile applications that utilize touch-based input systems and behavioral analytics for improving user experience or targeted advertising purposes. The misconfiguration creates an environment where sensitive user interaction patterns, typing habits, and navigation behaviors can be recorded and potentially transmitted to third-party servers without users understanding the scope of data collection occurring in the background.
The technical nature of this vulnerability aligns with CWE-693, which addresses protection mechanism failures, particularly concerning inadequate access control and data collection practices. The flaw operates through improper application configuration where security controls meant to protect user privacy are either disabled or misapplied, allowing unauthorized data collection mechanisms to function. This misconfiguration typically involves the application's ability to access device sensors, user interaction logs, and behavioral analytics without implementing proper user consent protocols or transparent data collection disclosures. The vulnerability demonstrates a fundamental failure in the application's privacy-by-design principles, where data collection practices are not adequately safeguarded against unauthorized access or exploitation.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability creates substantial risks for both individual users and organizations deploying affected applications. Users may unknowingly expose sensitive behavioral patterns that could be exploited for identity theft, targeted phishing attacks, or personalized social engineering campaigns. The collected data might include keystroke dynamics, touch pressure patterns, navigation sequences, and other granular interaction details that could be used to create detailed user profiles for malicious purposes. Security analysts note that such vulnerabilities often serve as initial access points for more sophisticated attacks, as the collected behavioral data can provide attackers with insights into user patterns and system usage that can be leveraged for privilege escalation or targeted compromise attempts.
Organizations deploying applications with this vulnerability face significant compliance risks under privacy regulations such as gdpr, ccpa, and other data protection frameworks that mandate explicit user consent for data collection activities. The lack of user awareness regarding data collection practices constitutes a violation of transparency requirements and can result in substantial regulatory penalties. Furthermore, this vulnerability creates opportunities for threat actors to exploit the collected data for advanced persistent threat campaigns, where behavioral patterns are used to bypass security controls or create more convincing social engineering attacks. The ATT&CK framework categorizes this type of vulnerability under T1566, which involves social engineering techniques that can be enhanced through the collection of user behavior data to make attacks more convincing and effective.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2018-11922 require immediate configuration reviews and implementation of proper access control measures. Organizations should ensure that all application components implement explicit user consent mechanisms before collecting behavioral data, with clear disclosure of what information is being gathered and how it will be used. The application should be configured to minimize data collection to only what is necessary for core functionality, implementing data minimization principles as outlined in privacy by design frameworks. Security teams must conduct regular audits of application permissions and data collection practices, ensuring that behavioral analytics features are properly secured and that users are adequately informed about data collection activities. Additionally, implementing network monitoring solutions can help detect unauthorized data transmission patterns that may indicate exploitation of this vulnerability, while regular security assessments should verify that proper configuration controls are maintained to prevent recurrence of similar misconfigurations.