CVE-2014-7538
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 Headlines news India (aka com.dreamstep.wHEADLINESNEWSINDIA) application 0.21.13219.95110 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 Headlines news India Android application fails to validate X.509 certificates during SSL/TLS connections, allowing man-in-the-middle attackers to intercept encrypted traffic by presenting fraudulent certificates and steal sensitive data.
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= 0.21.13219.95110CVSS 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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Verify Headlines News India app is installedCheck installed applications on the Android device for 'Headlines News India' by navigating to Settings > Apps or using 'adb shell pm list packages' to list all installed packagesAffected if The Headlines News India application is present on the device
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Check the installed application versionAccess version information through Settings > Apps > Headlines News India > Version, or use command 'adb shell dumpsys package <package_name>' to retrieve versionCode and versionNameAffected if Version equals exactly 0.21.13219.95110
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Confirm the app has network permissionsReview the AndroidManifest.xml file for the INTERNET permission, or use 'adb shell dumpsys package <package_name>' to inspect requested permissionsAffected if The INTERNET permission is granted, enabling network communication
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Verify the app makes SSL/TLS connectionsUse network traffic analysis tools (such as a proxy or network sniffer) to observe if the app establishes HTTPS connections to external serversAffected if The app transmits data over HTTPS to remote servers
The environment is affected if Headlines News India version 0.21.13219.95110 is installed and the app uses network connections, as the lack of X.509 certificate validation allows interception of its SSL/TLS traffic.
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 dataImplement proper SSL certificate validation in the Android application using a custom TrustManager that validates the server certificate chain, or implement certificate pinning for known endpoints.
- Consultation4.0 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 $5,120.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2014-7538 — 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-2014-7538 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
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data