dbcve.org
Improper Access ControlWeakness · CWE-284

CVE-2026-40866

HIGH · 8.6 CVSS v4.0 Published 2026-04-21
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
92/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable Zero-click

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 · unedited
Horilla is a free and open source Human Resource Management System (HRMS). In 1.5.0, an insecure direct object reference in the employee document upload endpoint allows any authenticated user to overwrite or replace or corrupt another employee’s document by changing the document ID in the upload request. This enables unauthorized modification of HR records.

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 confidence

Horilla HRMS 1.5.0 contains an Insecure Direct Object Reference (IDOR) vulnerability in the employee document upload endpoint. The application does not verify that the authenticated user owns or has permission to modify the target document before processing upload requests, allowing any authenticated user to overwrite, replace, or corrupt another employee's documents by manipulating the document ID parameter.

MitigationImplement proper authorization checks in the document upload endpoint to verify the authenticated user has permission to modify the specific document being uploaded. Validate that the document ID in the request belongs to the requesting user before allowing any write operations.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

CVSS 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
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
Authentication
X
User interaction
None
Scope
X

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X

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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Confirm Horilla HRMS version
    Locate the installed Horilla HRMS version by checking the application version file, about page, or admin dashboard. Common paths include /about/ or looking for version info in the project metadata.
    Affected if The installed version is 1.5.0 or falls within the affected range (no specific upper bound provided, so treat any unpatched version as potentially affected)
  2. Identify document upload endpoint
    Locate the employee document upload endpoint in the application. Common URL patterns may include /document/upload/, /employee/document/, or similar paths under the HR or employee modules. Check the application's URL routing configuration.
    Affected if The document upload endpoint exists and is accessible to authenticated users
  3. Verify authentication requirement
    Attempt to access the document upload endpoint without being logged in. Check if the application redirects to a login page or returns an authentication error.
    Affected if The endpoint is accessible without authentication, indicating a broader issue beyond the IDOR vulnerability
  4. Test document ID parameter manipulation
    As an authenticated user, submit a document upload request while manipulating the document ID parameter to reference a document belonging to a different user. Observe if the application accepts the request and processes it without returning an authorization error.
    Affected if The application accepts a document upload request with a manipulated document ID belonging to another user and processes the request successfully
  5. Verify authorization enforcement in code
    Review the source code of the document upload view function. Search for authorization checks that verify the requesting user owns or has permission to modify the specific document ID being uploaded. Look for permission decorators, ownership validation, or user-document association checks.
    Affected if No authorization check exists, or the check only verifies user authentication without validating document ownership or modification permissions

A user is affected if they are running Horilla HRMS 1.5.0 (or an unpatched version) and the document upload endpoint allows authenticated users to modify documents belonging to other users by manipulating the document ID parameter without proper ownership verification.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Implement proper authorization checks in the document upload endpoint to verify the authenticated user has permission to modify the specific document being uploaded. Validate that the document ID in the request belongs to the requesting user before allowing any write operations.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
18.0 hours of engineering $3,200
Get help mitigating

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 locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2026-40866 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

Get it on GitHub Scan in the browser

References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2026-40866 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • 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