# CVE-2025-44040: Auth bypass in n/a

> An attacker could potentially escalate privileges in OrangeHRM via loose equality checks in authentication logic, though the vendor disputes exploitability.

- **Severity:** High 7.2 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 21 May 2025
- **Updated:** 13 Oct 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-vj38-xwp2-x5gc

## What is CVE-2025-44040?

CVE-2025-44040 is a high-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in n/a, published on 21 May 2025. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

An issue in OrangeHRM v.5.7 allows an attacker to escalate privileges via UserService.php and the checkForOldHash function. Authentication decisions may be made via PHP loose-equality comparisons if a specific MD5 value is present in the credential store. NOTE: this is disputed by the Supplier because an adversary has no way to place the specific MD5 value into the credential store (unless they already have full privileges) and because the specific MD5 value would not realistically be present otherwise.

Weakness: CWE-269 (Improper Privilege Management)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-44040?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Orangehrm Orangehrm.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-44040?

No fix has been published for CVE-2025-44040 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2025-44040 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-44040 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2007-1193](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2007-1193/): Other in n/a (critical 9.3)
- [CVE-2025-66224](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-66224/): OrangeHRM is Vulnerable to Code Execution Through Arbitrary File Write from Sendmail Parameter Injection (critical 9.0)
- [CVE-2019-12839](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-12839/): Command injection in n/a (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2025-66225](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-66225/): OrangeHRM is Vulnerable to Account Takeover Through Unvalidated Username in Password Reset Workflow (high 8.7)
- [CVE-2025-66289](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-66289/): OrangeHRM is Vulnerable to Persistent Session Access Due to Missing Invalidation After User Disable and Password Change (high 8.7)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-44040 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-44040 is a high-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in n/a, published on 21 May 2025. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-44040 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: n/a. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-44040/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-44040/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-44040
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-44040
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-44040

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-44040/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.