CVE-2026-24038 Horilla HR has 2FA Bypass through its OTP Handling Logic

High 8.1 Published 22 Jan 2026 Updated 22 Jan 2026

Attackers can bypass two-factor authentication in Horilla HRMS by omitting the OTP field, potentially compromising administrative accounts and sensitive HR data.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: Any signed-in user
Attackable: Over the internet
Victim action needed: Not needed
Fix: None listed

What is CVE-2026-24038?

CVE-2026-24038 is a high-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in horilla-opensource horilla, published on 22 Jan 2026. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

Horilla is a free and open source Human Resource Management System (HRMS). In version 1.4.0, the OTP handling logic has a flawed equality check that can be bypassed. When an OTP expires, the server returns None, and if an attacker omits the otp field from their POST request, the user-supplied OTP is also None, causing the comparison user_otp == otp to pass. This allows an attacker to bypass two-factor authentication entirely without ever providing a valid OTP. If administrative accounts are targeted, it could lead to compromise of sensitive HR data, manipulation of employee records, and further system-wide abuse. This issue has been fixed in version 1.5.0.

Weakness: CWE-287

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-24038?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Horilla Horilla.

How do I fix CVE-2026-24038?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-24038 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

Upgrade, and rotate credentials and sessions that may have been exposed. More about Authentication bypass.

Is CVE-2026-24038 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-24038 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Sources

Also known as GHSA-hqpv-ff5v-3hwf.