CVE-2026-70773: Oracle HCM Auth Bypass Vulnerability

CVE-2026-70773 Overview

CVE-2026-70773 is a high-severity vulnerability in the Oracle HCM Common Architecture product of Oracle E-Business Suite, specifically within the Knowledge Integration component. The flaw affects supported versions 12.2.3 through 12.2.15. An unauthenticated remote attacker can exploit the issue over HTTP without user interaction. Successful exploitation grants unauthorized read access to all data accessible through Oracle HCM Common Architecture, along with limited unauthorized update, insert, or delete operations against a subset of that data.

Critical Impact
An unauthenticated network attacker can compromise confidentiality of all Oracle HCM Common Architecture data and modify a subset of records through the Knowledge Integration component over HTTP.

Affected Products

Oracle E-Business Suite — Oracle HCM Common Architecture, version 12.2.3
Oracle E-Business Suite — Oracle HCM Common Architecture, versions 12.2.4 through 12.2.14
Oracle E-Business Suite — Oracle HCM Common Architecture, version 12.2.15

Discovery Timeline

2026-08-18 - CVE-2026-70773 published to NVD
2026-08-20 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2026-70773

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability resides in the Knowledge Integration component of Oracle HCM Common Architecture, a shared services layer within Oracle E-Business Suite. An attacker reaches the vulnerable code path through an HTTP request to a network-exposed endpoint. No authentication or user interaction is required, and exploitation complexity is low.

Successful exploitation yields two distinct impacts. First, the attacker gains unauthorized access to all data accessible through Oracle HCM Common Architecture, which typically includes human capital management records such as employee, organization, and workforce data. Second, the attacker can perform unauthorized INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE operations against a subset of that data. Availability is not impacted according to the CVSS vector.

Oracle has not published a public CWE classification for this issue. The combination of network attack vector, no privileges required, and the ability to both read all data and modify a subset is consistent with a broken access control or improper authorization pattern in an internet-reachable EBS endpoint.

Root Cause

Oracle has not released detailed root-cause information beyond the Security Alert advisory. The impact profile — full confidentiality compromise combined with partial integrity compromise reachable without credentials — indicates missing or improperly enforced authorization checks within the Knowledge Integration component's HTTP interface.

Attack Vector

Exploitation requires only network access via HTTP to a vulnerable Oracle E-Business Suite deployment exposing Oracle HCM Common Architecture. The attacker sends crafted HTTP requests to the Knowledge Integration endpoint without authenticating. Internet-facing EBS environments are at the highest risk, but any deployment reachable from untrusted networks should be treated as exposed.

No public proof-of-concept exploit code has been published. Refer to the Oracle Security Alert for vendor guidance.

Detection Methods for CVE-2026-70773

Indicators of Compromise

Unauthenticated HTTP requests to Oracle E-Business Suite endpoints associated with the Knowledge Integration component of Oracle HCM Common Architecture.
Anomalous read volumes against HCM data tables originating from EBS application service accounts without corresponding user session activity.
Unexpected INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE operations on HCM Common Architecture tables outside of scheduled batch jobs or approved change windows.

Detection Strategies

Review web tier access logs on EBS application servers for unauthenticated requests to HCM Knowledge Integration URLs, focusing on requests that return large response bodies or 200 OK status without prior authentication redirects.
Enable and monitor Oracle Database auditing on HCM Common Architecture schemas to identify data access patterns that bypass typical application session context.
Correlate application-tier request logs with database query logs to surface requests that read or modify HCM data without a corresponding authenticated user identifier.

Monitoring Recommendations

Alert on new source IP addresses interacting with EBS HCM endpoints, particularly from outside expected corporate address ranges.
Track baseline query volumes against HCM Common Architecture schemas and alert on deviations that could indicate mass data extraction.
Forward EBS web tier, concurrent manager, and database audit logs to a centralized SIEM for cross-source correlation and long-term retention.

How to Mitigate CVE-2026-70773

Immediate Actions Required

Apply the Oracle Security Alert patch for CVE-2026-70773 as published in the Oracle Security Alert to all Oracle E-Business Suite deployments running Oracle HCM Common Architecture versions 12.2.3 through 12.2.15.
Inventory all internet-facing EBS instances and prioritize them for immediate patching, since the vulnerability is unauthenticated and network-reachable.
Review web tier and database audit logs for the past several months to identify any prior unauthorized access to HCM data.

Patch Information

Oracle addressed CVE-2026-70773 in the August 2026 Security Alert. Administrators should download the applicable patch for Oracle E-Business Suite 12.2 from My Oracle Support and apply it following the instructions referenced in the Oracle Security Alert. Oracle strongly recommends applying Security Alert fixes without delay.

Workarounds

Restrict network access to Oracle E-Business Suite HCM Common Architecture endpoints using perimeter firewalls, reverse proxies, or web application firewall rules until patching is complete.
Place EBS environments behind a VPN or zero-trust network access gateway to eliminate unauthenticated internet exposure.
Disable or block the Knowledge Integration component's HTTP endpoints at the reverse proxy layer if the functionality is not required for business operations.

bash

# Example reverse proxy rule to block external access to HCM Knowledge Integration endpoints
# Adjust the location pattern to match your EBS deployment's Knowledge Integration URI
location ~* /OA_HTML/.*(knowledge|hcm).* {
    allow 10.0.0.0/8;      # internal corporate range
    deny  all;             # block all other sources until patch is applied
}