CVE-2014-5524
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 Adcolony library for Android 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.
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 Adcolony library for Android fails to validate X.509 certificates when establishing SSL/TLS connections, allowing attackers to intercept communications by presenting fraudulent certificates and perform man-in-the-middle attacks.
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
- Adjacent
- Complexity
- M
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Partial
- Integrity
- Partial
- Availability
- Partial
AV:A/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/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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Identify if Adcolony library is present in the Android applicationExamine the application's lib/, libs/, or similar directory for Adcolony-related JAR or AAR files (e.g., adcolony.jar, AdColony.jar)Affected if The Adcolony library file exists in the application packages
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Check application network traffic handling with AdcolonyReview the application code for usage of Adcolony's ad serving or video playback features that establish network connectionsAffected if The application uses Adcolony SDK to make network requests without additional certificate validation
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Determine if certificate pinning is implemented as a compensating controlSearch application code for certificate pinning implementations (e.g., custom TrustManager, pinning libraries) applied to Adcolony connectionsAffected if No custom certificate validation or pinning is applied to Adcolony network traffic
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Verify SSL/TLS validation in Adcolony integration codeInspect the application source code for any custom SSLContext or TrustManager configurations used with Adcolony ad requestsAffected if The application relies solely on default Adcolony SSL handling without additional validation layers
The application is affected if it includes the Adcolony library and uses it for network communications without implementing custom certificate validation or pinning as a compensating control.
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 dataUpdate the Adcolony library to a version implementing proper X.509 certificate chain validation, or implement certificate pinning in the application as a workaround until a patched library version is available.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $4,480.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2014-5524 — 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-2014-5524 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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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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