I NewspaperApplication · Independent

CVE-2014-7085

MEDIUM · 5.4 CVSS v2.0 Published 2014-10-19
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 i Newspaper (aka com.independent.thei) application @7F080184 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 i Newspaper Android application fails to validate X.509 certificates from SSL servers, allowing man-in-the-middle attackers to intercept and manipulate SSL/TLS communications by presenting forged certificates.

MitigationImplement proper SSL certificate validation in the application, including chain-of-trust verification and hostname validation, or use certificate pinning for sensitive endpoints.

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
I NewspaperApplication
Affected:= \@7f080184

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 the installed version of i Newspaper app
    On the Android device, go to Settings > Apps > i Newspaper (or Independent I Newspaper) and check the Version or Version Name field. Alternatively, use adb: `adb shell pm list packages | grep newspaper` then `adb shell dumpsys package <packagename>` to find version info.
    Affected if Version matches the build identifier \@7f080184 or is an unknown/older version that lacks proper SSL validation.
  2. Confirm the app makes network requests
    Review app permissions and traffic. The i Newspaper app fetches news content remotely, requiring network access. Use a network proxy or packet capture to observe if the app makes HTTPS requests.
    Affected if The app transmits data over network connections, which would be vulnerable to interception.
  3. Test SSL/TLS certificate validation
    Set up a man-in-the-middle proxy (such as Burp Suite or OWASP ZAP) with an untrusted or self-signed certificate. Attempt to intercept traffic from the i Newspaper app while it makes network requests.
    Affected if The app accepts the untrusted certificate and completes connections without validation errors, indicating the SSL validation flaw is present.
  4. Check for certificate pinning
    Inspect the app's network security configuration or decompile the APK to examine the SSL/TLS implementation for certificate pinning code. Look for custom TrustManager implementations or pinning libraries.
    Affected if No certificate pinning is implemented, and the app uses default trust mechanisms that fail to validate certificates properly.

If the i Newspaper Android app version \@7f080184 (or an earlier unpatched version) is installed and accepts untrusted SSL certificates during network communication, the environment is affected by this CVE.

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

Implement proper SSL certificate validation in the application, including chain-of-trust verification and hostname validation, or use certificate pinning for sensitive endpoints.

Fix this in I Newspaper Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
13.0 hours of engineering $2,290
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Scan for this in your stack

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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-2014-7085 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