CVE-2025-24804 in Mobile-Security-Framework-MobSF
Summary
by MITRE • 02/05/2025
Mobile Security Framework (MobSF) is an automated, all-in-one mobile application (Android/iOS/Windows) pen-testing, malware analysis and security assessment framework. According to Apple's documentation for bundle ID's, it must contain only alphanumeric characters (A–Z, a–z, and 0–9), hyphens (-), and periods (.). However, an attacker can manually modify this value in the `Info.plist` file and add special characters to the `CFBundleIdentifier` value. When the application parses the wrong characters in the bundle ID, it encounters an error. As a result, it will not display content and will throw a 500 error instead. The only way to make the pages work again is to manually remove the malicious application from the system. This issue has been addressed in version 4.3.1 and all users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/24/2025
The Mobile Security Framework (MobSF) presents a critical security vulnerability through improper input validation of bundle identifiers in mobile application metadata files. This vulnerability stems from the application's failure to properly sanitize and validate the CFBundleIdentifier value within Info.plist files, creating an avenue for malicious actors to exploit the system through crafted bundle identifiers containing special characters. The flaw manifests when MobSF attempts to parse bundle identifiers that violate Apple's documented requirements for bundle ID formatting, which strictly permits only alphanumeric characters, hyphens, and periods. This represents a classic input validation issue that allows for malformed data processing, aligning with CWE-20 standards for improper input validation. The vulnerability exists across all supported mobile platforms including Android, iOS, and Windows, demonstrating the cross-platform nature of the security flaw.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability occurs when an attacker modifies the CFBundleIdentifier in the Info.plist file to include non-standard characters such as underscores, spaces, or other special symbols that violate Apple's bundle ID specifications. When MobSF processes these malformed identifiers, the application encounters parsing errors during metadata analysis, resulting in a cascading failure that manifests as a 500 internal server error. This error prevents proper content display and renders the application's web interface unusable for security assessment operations. The system's failure mode is particularly concerning as it creates a complete service disruption requiring manual intervention to restore functionality, indicating a lack of proper error handling and graceful degradation mechanisms. This vulnerability essentially creates a denial-of-service condition that can be triggered through simple metadata manipulation, making it highly exploitable in automated attack scenarios.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service disruption to compromise the integrity of security assessment workflows. Security professionals relying on MobSF for mobile application security testing face potential complete workflow interruptions when encountering maliciously crafted applications, forcing them to manually intervene by removing affected applications from the system. This manual intervention process creates significant operational overhead and increases the risk of human error during remediation. The vulnerability particularly affects automated security assessment pipelines where multiple applications are processed simultaneously, as a single malicious bundle identifier can cause cascading failures throughout the entire assessment process. Organizations conducting mobile security assessments using MobSF may experience complete operational paralysis, undermining their ability to perform critical security testing functions and potentially leaving applications vulnerable to undetected security flaws.
The remediation for this vulnerability requires immediate upgrading to MobSF version 4.3.1, which implements proper input validation and sanitization of bundle identifiers to prevent processing of malformed CFBundleIdentifier values. This fix addresses the core issue by enforcing strict validation against Apple's documented bundle ID specifications and implementing robust error handling that prevents parsing failures from causing system-wide service disruptions. Security practitioners should also consider implementing additional monitoring and logging mechanisms to detect potential exploitation attempts, as this vulnerability could be used in targeted attacks against security assessment infrastructure. The lack of known workarounds emphasizes the critical nature of this vulnerability, as organizations cannot implement temporary mitigations while awaiting the official patch. This vulnerability demonstrates the importance of proper input validation in security tools, particularly those handling user-provided data in automated processing environments, and serves as a reminder of the need for comprehensive error handling in security assessment frameworks. The vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK techniques related to privilege escalation and denial of service, as it allows attackers to disrupt security assessment operations and potentially gain access to sensitive security testing environments.