CVE-2014-1885
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedThe ForzeArmate application for Android, when Adobe PhoneGap 2.9.0 or earlier is used, allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary JavaScript code, and consequently obtain write access to external-storage resources, by leveraging control over any Google syndication advertising domain.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceThe ForzeArmate Android application uses a vulnerable version of Adobe PhoneGap (2.9.0 or earlier) that fails to properly restrict JavaScript execution contexts. Attackers controlling Google syndication advertising domains can inject malicious JavaScript, allowing arbitrary code execution within the PhoneGap webview and subsequent write access to the device's external storage.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE dataall versionsCVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- Partial
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:P
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Verify ForzeArmate app is installedCheck Android device for the ForzeArmate application in the app drawer or via package manager (adb shell pm list packages | grep forzearmate)Affected if The ForzeArmate package is present on the device
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Identify the PhoneGap library versionExtract the APK from the device and inspect the lib/ folder for phonegap or cordova JAR files, or decompile to locate the phonegap version string in the assets or res/xml config filesAffected if The included PhoneGap library is version 2.9.0 or earlier (check version metadata inside the library files)
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Confirm use of Google syndication advertisingDecompile the APK and examine the assets/www/config.xml or res/xml/config.xml for cordova plugin definitions, and inspect the source for Google AdMob or syndication ad SDK integrationAffected if The app includes Google syndication advertising SDK or loads ads from Google syndication domains
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Verify external storage access permissionInspect AndroidManifest.xml for android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE or android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permissions, or check app permissions on the device through Settings > Apps > ForzeArmate > PermissionsAffected if The app requests or has external storage read/write permissions granted
A user is affected if the ForzeArmate app is installed on their Android device with PhoneGap 2.9.0 or earlier, uses Google syndication advertising, and has external storage permissions enabled.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpgrade Adobe PhoneGap to a version newer than 2.9.0, then re-validate the application's content security policy and external storage access controls to ensure the injection vector is eliminated.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing5.0 h
- Review / QA3.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $4,752.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2014-1885 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2014-1885 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data