Overview
A critical vulnerability, identified as CVE-2025-66289, has been discovered in OrangeHRM, a widely used human resource management (HRM) system. This vulnerability impacts versions 5.0 through 5.7. The core issue lies in the application’s failure to properly invalidate existing user sessions upon account disablement or password changes. This allows already active sessions to remain valid indefinitely, posing a significant security risk.
Technical Details
The vulnerability stems from a lack of session revocation or session-store cleanup mechanisms within OrangeHRM when critical state changes occur, specifically when a user account is disabled or when the user’s password is changed. As a result, session cookies generated prior to these events remain active and valid. This allows a disabled user, or an attacker who has compromised an account, to continue accessing protected pages and performing actions as if the account were still active, so long as a previous session is still active.
Essentially, disabling an account or resetting a password has no effect on already established sessions. This creates a window of opportunity for unauthorized access and potential malicious activity, even after administrative actions are taken to revoke access.
CVSS Analysis
Currently, the CVSS score and severity rating for CVE-2025-66289 are marked as N/A. While a specific CVSS score is unavailable at this time, the potential impact of this vulnerability is significant and should be treated with high priority.
A proper risk assessment should consider the likelihood of account compromise and the potential damage that could result from unauthorized access to HR data.
Possible Impact
The impact of CVE-2025-66289 is potentially severe. The vulnerability allows:
- Prolonged Unauthorized Access: Disabled users or attackers can maintain access to the system even after their credentials have been revoked or changed.
- Data Breach: Sensitive employee data, including personal information, salary details, and performance reviews, could be exposed.
- Account Takeover Exploitation: Attackers could leverage compromised accounts to manipulate data, perform unauthorized actions, or escalate privileges.
- Compliance Violations: Failure to properly revoke access could result in violations of data privacy regulations.
Because the user sessions are not invalidated, a disgruntled former employee or an attacker who previously gained access to an account can continue to exploit the system, undermining the intended security measures.
Mitigation and Patch Steps
The vulnerability has been addressed in OrangeHRM version 5.8. The most effective mitigation is to immediately upgrade to this version.
- Upgrade to OrangeHRM 5.8: This is the recommended solution. Follow the official OrangeHRM upgrade documentation.
- Session Management Review (If Immediate Upgrade is Not Possible): If you cannot immediately upgrade, investigate implementing a custom session management solution or a temporary workaround to invalidate sessions on account disablement/password change. This is highly discouraged due to complexity and potential for error. Proceed with extreme caution and thorough testing.
Important: After upgrading, thoroughly test the system to ensure that sessions are correctly invalidated upon account disablement and password resets.
