CVE-2026-26706: Pharmacy Point Of Sale System SQLi Flaw

CVE-2026-26706 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_receipt.php endpoint, allowing unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary SQL commands against the backend database. This type of vulnerability can lead to complete compromise of the application's data, including sensitive patient and pharmaceutical information.

Critical Impact

Unauthenticated attackers can exploit this SQL Injection vulnerability to extract, modify, or delete sensitive pharmacy and patient data, potentially leading to complete database compromise.

Affected Products

• Oretnom23 Pharmacy Point of Sale System v1.0
• All installations with the vulnerable /pharmacy/view_receipt.php endpoint exposed

Discovery Timeline

• 2026-03-02 - CVE-2026-26706 published to NVD
• 2026-03-03 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2026-26706

Vulnerability Analysis

This SQL Injection vulnerability (CWE-89: Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command) occurs in the view_receipt.php file of the Pharmacy Point of Sale System. The application fails to properly sanitize user-supplied input before incorporating it into SQL queries, allowing attackers to inject malicious SQL statements.

The network-accessible nature of this vulnerability means attackers can exploit it remotely without any prior authentication or user interaction. When successfully exploited, an attacker gains the ability to read, modify, or delete data from the database, potentially including customer records, transaction histories, pharmaceutical inventory data, and administrative credentials.

Root Cause

The root cause of this vulnerability is the direct inclusion of user-controlled input into SQL query construction without proper parameterization or input validation. The view_receipt.php script appears to accept parameters that are concatenated directly into SQL statements, creating an injection point. This is a common pattern in legacy PHP applications where prepared statements or parameterized queries are not implemented.

Attack Vector

The attack vector is network-based, requiring no authentication or user interaction. An attacker can craft malicious HTTP requests to the /pharmacy/view_receipt.php endpoint, injecting SQL payloads through vulnerable parameters. The lack of authentication requirements makes this particularly dangerous, as any network-accessible instance of the application is vulnerable to exploitation.

The vulnerability can be exploited using standard SQL Injection techniques including UNION-based injection for data extraction, time-based blind injection for database enumeration, and stacked queries for data manipulation or deletion. Technical details and proof-of-concept information are available in the GitHub PoC Repository.

Detection Methods for CVE-2026-26706

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual database query patterns in application logs, particularly those containing SQL syntax like UNION SELECT, OR 1=1, or time-based payloads
• Abnormal access patterns to /pharmacy/view_receipt.php with suspicious parameter values
• Database error messages appearing in web server logs indicating malformed queries
• Unexpected data exfiltration or large response sizes from the receipt endpoint

Detection Strategies

• Deploy Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block common SQL Injection patterns targeting the view_receipt.php endpoint
• Implement database activity monitoring to identify suspicious query patterns or unauthorized data access
• Configure intrusion detection systems (IDS) with signatures for SQL Injection attack patterns
• Enable verbose logging on the web application to capture all requests to vulnerable endpoints

Monitoring Recommendations

• Monitor web server access logs for requests to /pharmacy/view_receipt.php containing SQL keywords or special characters
• Set up alerts for database errors that may indicate SQL Injection attempts
• Implement rate limiting on the vulnerable endpoint to slow down automated exploitation attempts
• Review database query logs for unusual SELECT statements or attempts to access system tables

How to Mitigate CVE-2026-26706

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
• Disable or remove the /pharmacy/view_receipt.php endpoint if not critical to business operations
• Implement network segmentation to isolate the application from sensitive internal resources

Patch Information

As of the last NVD update on 2026-03-03, no official vendor patch has been released for this vulnerability. The Pharmacy Point of Sale System is developed by oretnom23 and distributed through Sourcecodester. Organizations using this software should monitor the vendor's repository for security updates.

Given the critical nature of this vulnerability and the lack of an official patch, organizations should consider implementing compensating controls or migrating to a more secure point of sale solution.

Workarounds

• Implement input validation at the application level by modifying the view_receipt.php file to use prepared statements with parameterized queries
• Deploy a reverse proxy with ModSecurity or similar WAF capabilities to filter malicious requests
• Restrict access to the application using .htaccess rules or web server configuration to limit access to trusted networks only
• Consider taking the application offline until a proper fix can be implemented if it handles sensitive patient or pharmaceutical data

# Example Apache .htaccess restriction for emergency mitigation
<Files "view_receipt.php">
    Order Deny,Allow
    Deny from all
    Allow from 192.168.1.0/24
</Files>