Improper Verification of Intent by Broadcast Receiver

Opis

The Android application uses a Broadcast Receiver that receives an Intent but does not properly verify that the Intent came from an authorized source.

Certain types of Intents, identified by action string, can only be broadcast by the operating system itself, not by third-party applications. However, when an application registers to receive these implicit system intents, it is also registered to receive any explicit intents. While a malicious application cannot send an implicit system intent, it can send an explicit intent to the target application, which may assume that any received intent is a valid implicit system intent and not an explicit intent from another application. This may lead to unintended behavior.

Inne nazwy

Intent Spoofing

Skutki

• Integrity

  Gain Privileges or Assume Identity

  Another application can impersonate the operating system and cause the software to perform an unintended action.

Zapobieganie

• Architecture and Design

  Before acting on the Intent, check the Intent Action to make sure it matches the expected System action.

Przykłady podatności

• CVE-2025-20972 Mobile app store does not properly verify the intent by the broadcast receiver, allowing local attackers to write arbitrary files
• CVE-2024-10576 Mobile device has an application that exposes a broadcast received that allows local attackers to force a factory reset

Słabość nadrzędna

• CWE-940 Improper Verification of Source of a Communication Channel

Kiedy powstaje

• Architecture and Design

Dotyczy

Not Language-Specific, Mobile

Uwagi

This entry will be made more comprehensive in later CWE versions.

Źródła

1. Analyzing Inter-Application Communication in Android — Erika Chin, Adrienne Porter Felt, Kate Greenwood, David Wagner, 3.2.1