Yell Local SearchApplication · Yell

CVE-2014-5887

MEDIUM · 5.4 CVSS v2.0 Published 2014-09-12
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
59/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
No privileges Zero-click

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 · unedited
The Yell Local Search (aka com.yell.launcher2) application 4.2.1.4 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 confidence

The Yell Local Search Android application version 4.2.1.4 fails to validate X.509 certificates from SSL servers during HTTPS connections. This means the app accepts any certificate presented by a server, allowing attackers on the same network to intercept traffic by presenting a malicious certificate. Sensitive data transmitted (such as search queries, location data, or user credentials) can be captured by man-in-the-middle attackers.

MitigationThe application code must be updated to properly validate SSL certificates by implementing certificate chain verification and hostname validation. This typically involves using a properly configured TrustManager or CertificatePinner to ensure only trusted, valid certificates are accepted.

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 data
Yell Local SearchApplication
Affected:= 4.2.1.4

CVSS 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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify installed app version
    Run 'adb shell pm list packages' to find the package name, then 'adb shell dumpsys package <package_name>' to view versionInfo. The package is typically com.yell.android or similar for Yell Local Search.
    Affected if The installed version is exactly 4.2.1.4
  2. Extract and inspect the APK
    Pull the APK from the device using 'adb pull /data/app/<package_name>/base.apk' and decompile it using a tool like apktool or jadx.
    Affected if APK extraction is successful and the app binary is available for code analysis
  3. Locate SSL/TLS handling code
    Search the decompiled code for HTTPS connection handling - look for HttpsURLConnection, SSLContext, or TrustManager implementations. Check for any custom TrustManager classes.
    Affected if The app contains code that creates HTTPS connections to transmit data
  4. Check for certificate validation weaknesses
    Inspect any TrustManager or hostname verifier implementations. Look for: (a) TrustManager implementations that return true without validating certificates, (b) use of ALLOW_ALL_HOSTNAME_VERIFIER, (c) absence of certificate chain verification logic.
    Affected if The code contains a TrustManager or hostname verifier that accepts certificates without proper validation (e.g., accepts all certificates, does not verify the certificate chain, or skips hostname verification)

A defender is affected if they have Yell Local Search version 4.2.1.4 installed AND the app transmits data over HTTPS without proper certificate chain and hostname validation in its SSL/TLS implementation.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

The application code must be updated to properly validate SSL certificates by implementing certificate chain verification and hostname validation. This typically involves using a properly configured TrustManager or CertificatePinner to ensure only trusted, valid certificates are accepted.

Fix this in Yell Local Search Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
16.0 hours of engineering $2,800
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Scan for this in your stack

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dbcve dependency scanner

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2014-5887 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • 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