Compliance Impact

The vulnerability involves the use of AES encryption in ECB mode for certain sensitive fields, which allows pattern disclosure and potential exposure of sensitive information. This could impact the confidentiality of personal or sensitive data stored within OrangeHRM systems.

Since GDPR, HIPAA, and similar regulations require adequate protection of sensitive data to prevent unauthorized disclosure, the use of insecure encryption methods like AES-ECB may lead to non-compliance with these standards.

However, the vulnerability has a low severity impact on confidentiality and requires high privileges to exploit, which may limit the practical risk. The issue was fixed in version 5.8.1 by replacing AES-ECB with a more secure encryption method, improving compliance posture.

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Executive Summary

CVE-2026-39349 is a vulnerability in OrangeHRM Open Source versions 5.0 to 5.8 where certain sensitive data fields are encrypted using AES in ECB (Electronic Codebook) mode.

AES-ECB mode is insecure because it preserves patterns in plaintext blocks within the ciphertext, allowing attackers to detect and disclose data patterns, potentially revealing sensitive information.

This vulnerability was fixed in version 5.8.1 by replacing AES-ECB encryption with a more secure method to prevent pattern disclosure.

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Impact Analysis

This vulnerability can lead to limited disclosure of sensitive information because the encryption method used (AES-ECB) preserves data patterns, which attackers with high privileges can exploit remotely.

However, the impact is considered low severity with a CVSS v4 base score of 2.1, requiring an attacker to have high privileges and overcome complex conditions to exploit it.

The vulnerability does not affect data integrity or system availability.

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Detection Guidance

This vulnerability involves the use of AES encryption in ECB mode for certain sensitive fields in OrangeHRM Open Source versions 5.0 to 5.8. Detection would involve identifying if your system is running a vulnerable version of OrangeHRM and if sensitive data is encrypted using AES-ECB mode.

Since the vulnerability requires high privileges to exploit and is related to encryption mode, detection on the network level is challenging because no direct exploit traffic is described.

To detect the vulnerability on your system, you can:

• Check the installed OrangeHRM version to see if it is between 5.0 and 5.8 (inclusive).
• Review configuration files or source code to identify if AES encryption is used in ECB mode for sensitive fields.
• Use commands to check the version, for example:
• grep -i version /path/to/orangehrm/version or similar commands depending on your installation.
• Inspect database fields or encrypted data patterns that might reveal ECB mode encryption characteristics (e.g., repeated ciphertext blocks).

No specific detection commands or network signatures are provided in the available information.

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Mitigation Strategies

The primary mitigation step is to upgrade OrangeHRM Open Source to version 5.8.1 or later, where the vulnerability is fixed by replacing AES-ECB encryption with a more secure method.

Since the vulnerability requires high privileges to exploit and has low severity, immediate mitigation involves:

• Applying the official patch or upgrading to OrangeHRM 5.8.1.
• Restricting high privilege access to the system to reduce the risk of exploitation.
• Reviewing encryption configurations to ensure sensitive data is not encrypted using AES in ECB mode.

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