CVE-2026-26704: Pharmacy Point of Sale System SQLi Flaw

CVE-2026-26704 Overview

A critical SQL Injection vulnerability has been identified in the Sourcecodester Pharmacy Point of Sale System v1.0. The vulnerability exists in the /pharmacy/view_category.php endpoint, allowing unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary SQL commands against the underlying database. This web application vulnerability enables malicious actors to bypass authentication, extract sensitive data, modify database contents, and potentially achieve full system compromise.

Critical Impact

This SQL Injection vulnerability allows unauthenticated remote attackers to execute arbitrary SQL queries, potentially leading to complete database compromise, theft of sensitive pharmacy and patient data, and unauthorized system access.

Affected Products

• Oretnom23 Pharmacy Point Of Sale System v1.0
• oretnom23:pharmacy_point_of_sale_system (CPE: cpe:2.3:a:oretnom23:pharmacy_point_of_sale_system:1.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*)

Discovery Timeline

• 2026-03-02 - CVE-2026-26704 published to NVD
• 2026-03-03 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2026-26704

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-89 (Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command), commonly known as SQL Injection. The affected endpoint /pharmacy/view_category.php fails to properly sanitize user-supplied input before incorporating it into SQL queries. This allows attackers to manipulate the query structure by injecting malicious SQL syntax.

The Pharmacy Point of Sale System, developed by oretnom23 and distributed through SourceCodester, is a web-based application designed for pharmacy inventory and sales management. Applications of this nature typically store sensitive information including customer details, prescription records, transaction histories, and potentially financial data, making them high-value targets for attackers.

Root Cause

The root cause of this vulnerability is insufficient input validation and the lack of parameterized queries (prepared statements) in the view_category.php file. User-controlled input is directly concatenated into SQL query strings without proper sanitization or escaping, allowing attackers to break out of the intended query context and inject arbitrary SQL commands.

Attack Vector

The vulnerability is exploitable remotely over the network without requiring authentication or user interaction. An attacker can craft malicious HTTP requests containing SQL injection payloads targeting the vulnerable parameter in the view_category.php endpoint.

The attack can be executed through standard web browsers or automated tools like SQLMap. Attackers may leverage various SQL injection techniques including:

• UNION-based injection - Extracting data from other database tables
• Boolean-based blind injection - Inferring database contents through true/false responses
• Time-based blind injection - Extracting data through response delays
• Error-based injection - Leveraging database error messages to extract information

For technical details regarding the vulnerability and attack vectors, refer to the GitHub Bug Report on SQL Injection.

Detection Methods for CVE-2026-26704

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual or malformed requests to /pharmacy/view_category.php containing SQL syntax characters such as single quotes ('), double dashes (--), semicolons (;), or UNION SELECT statements
• Database error messages in web server logs indicating SQL syntax errors
• Unexpected database queries or access patterns in database audit logs
• Evidence of data exfiltration or unauthorized database modifications

Detection Strategies

• Implement Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block common SQL injection patterns targeting the vulnerable endpoint
• Monitor web server access logs for requests to view_category.php containing suspicious characters or SQL keywords
• Enable database query logging and alert on anomalous query patterns, especially those containing UNION, SELECT, or comment syntax
• Deploy intrusion detection systems (IDS) with SQL injection signature detection capabilities

Monitoring Recommendations

• Configure real-time alerting for HTTP requests containing SQL injection payloads targeting PHP endpoints
• Establish baseline traffic patterns to the application and alert on deviations
• Monitor database user activity for unauthorized privilege escalation attempts
• Review web application logs for 500-series errors that may indicate failed injection attempts

How to Mitigate CVE-2026-26704

Immediate Actions Required

• Restrict network access to the Pharmacy Point of Sale System to trusted IP addresses only
• Deploy a Web Application Firewall (WAF) with SQL injection protection rules in front of the application
• If possible, take the affected application offline until a patch is available or proper input validation can be implemented
• Review database access logs for evidence of exploitation and rotate database credentials if compromise is suspected

Patch Information

As of the last NVD update on 2026-03-03, no official vendor patch has been released. The application is distributed through SourceCodester by developer oretnom23. Organizations using this software should monitor the GitHub Bug Report for updates and consider implementing manual remediation.

Workarounds

• Implement input validation at the web server level using ModSecurity or similar WAF solutions to filter SQL injection patterns
• Modify the source code to use parameterized queries (prepared statements) with PDO or MySQLi in the view_category.php file
• Apply network-level access controls to restrict access to the application from untrusted networks
• Consider migrating to an actively maintained pharmacy management solution with proper security practices

# Example ModSecurity rule to block SQL injection attempts
SecRule ARGS "@detectSQLi" \
    "id:1001,\
    phase:2,\
    block,\
    msg:'SQL Injection Attack Detected',\
    log,\
    severity:'CRITICAL'"