CVE-2018-18978 in Contour NEXT ONE App
Summary
by MITRE
An issue was discovered in the Ascensia Contour NEXT ONE application for Android before 2019-01-15. It has a statically coded encryption key. Extraction of the encryption key is necessary for deciphering communications between this application and the backend server. This, in combination with retrieving any user's encrypted data from the Ascensia cloud through another vulnerability, allows an attacker to obtain and modify any patient's medical information.
Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/12/2023
The vulnerability CVE-2018-18978 represents a critical security flaw in the Ascensia Contour NEXT ONE diabetes management application for Android devices. This issue stems from the application's implementation of static encryption keys that are hardcoded within the application binary, creating a fundamental weakness in the cryptographic protection mechanism. The presence of statically coded encryption keys violates established security principles and represents a direct violation of security best practices outlined in industry standards such as NIST SP 800-57 and OWASP Mobile Top 10. The vulnerability affects all versions of the application released prior to January 15, 2019, indicating a prolonged period during which the insecure implementation remained undetected and exploitable.
The technical flaw manifests through the use of hardcoded cryptographic keys that are embedded within the application's source code or compiled binary, making them easily accessible to attackers who perform reverse engineering operations. This approach to encryption fundamentally undermines the security model since the same key is used across all installations and user sessions, eliminating any cryptographic entropy that would normally be required to maintain data confidentiality. The vulnerability specifically affects the communication channel between the mobile application and Ascensia's backend servers, where all data transmission relies on this single, static encryption key. This creates a single point of failure that allows an attacker to decrypt sensitive medical information without requiring additional authentication or authorization mechanisms, directly correlating to CWE-327, which addresses the use of insecure cryptographic algorithms and hardcoded keys.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data exposure to encompass complete data manipulation capabilities within the medical information system. When combined with another vulnerability that allows retrieval of encrypted user data from Ascensia's cloud storage, attackers can achieve full access to patient medical records and potentially modify critical health information. This represents a severe compromise of patient privacy and healthcare data integrity, potentially enabling identity theft, medical fraud, and unauthorized modification of critical health data. The attack vector demonstrates how seemingly isolated vulnerabilities can combine to create more significant security breaches, aligning with ATT&CK technique T1566 for initial access through credential compromise and T1567 for exfiltration and manipulation of data. The vulnerability affects healthcare data at rest and in transit, representing a breach of HIPAA compliance requirements and potentially exposing patients to serious harm through medical data manipulation.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability require immediate remediation through application updates that implement proper key management practices, including the use of dynamic key generation, secure key storage mechanisms, and robust cryptographic protocols. Organizations should implement key rotation procedures and ensure that encryption keys are not hardcoded within applications but instead are managed through secure key management systems. The fix should address the root cause by eliminating the static key implementation and replacing it with secure key derivation methods that comply with NIST standards for cryptographic key management. Additionally, regular security assessments and penetration testing should be conducted to identify similar hardcoded credentials or cryptographic flaws within the application ecosystem. The vulnerability highlights the importance of secure coding practices and emphasizes the need for comprehensive security testing throughout the software development lifecycle to prevent such fundamental cryptographic weaknesses from reaching production environments.