CVE-2026-33910: OpenEMR SQL Injection Vulnerability

CVE-2026-33910 Overview

CVE-2026-33910 is a SQL injection vulnerability affecting OpenEMR, a widely-used open source electronic health records (EHR) and medical practice management application. The vulnerability exists in the patient selection feature due to insufficient input validation, allowing authenticated attackers to inject malicious SQL commands. This flaw impacts versions up to and including 8.0.0.2 of OpenEMR.

Critical Impact

Authenticated attackers can exploit this SQL injection vulnerability to access, modify, or delete sensitive patient health records and potentially compromise the entire database containing protected health information (PHI).

Affected Products

• OpenEMR versions up to and including 8.0.0.2
• OpenEMR installations using the vulnerable patient selection feature
• Healthcare organizations running unpatched OpenEMR instances

Discovery Timeline

• 2026-03-25 - CVE-2026-33910 published to NVD
• 2026-03-26 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2026-33910

Vulnerability Analysis

This SQL injection vulnerability (CWE-89) exists within the patient selection feature of OpenEMR. The application fails to properly sanitize user-supplied input before incorporating it into SQL queries, creating an injection point that authenticated users can exploit. Given that OpenEMR handles sensitive electronic health records, successful exploitation could result in unauthorized access to protected health information (PHI), data modification, or complete database compromise.

The vulnerability requires authentication to exploit, meaning an attacker must first have valid credentials to access the OpenEMR system. However, once authenticated, even with minimal privileges, the attacker can leverage the SQL injection to escalate their access and extract data they would not normally be authorized to view.

Root Cause

The root cause of this vulnerability is insufficient input validation in the patient selection feature. User-controlled input is directly concatenated or interpolated into SQL queries without proper parameterization or escaping. This classic SQL injection pattern allows attackers to break out of the intended query structure and inject arbitrary SQL commands.

Attack Vector

The attack is network-based and requires low privileges (authentication) with no user interaction needed. An authenticated attacker can craft malicious input containing SQL syntax and submit it through the patient selection functionality. The injected SQL statements are then executed by the database server with the same privileges as the application's database connection, potentially allowing:

• Extraction of all patient records and sensitive health information
• Modification or deletion of medical records
• Access to user credentials stored in the database
• Potential for further system compromise depending on database configuration

The vulnerability is detailed in the GitHub Security Advisory GHSA-x32c-xj5g-7jx7 and was addressed in commit 73db3264aed253684532839380cae3b0a56c83d2.

Detection Methods for CVE-2026-33910

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual database queries containing SQL injection patterns such as UNION SELECT, OR 1=1, or comment sequences (--, /**/)
• Abnormal access patterns to patient records from single user accounts
• Database error messages in application logs indicating malformed SQL syntax
• Unexpected data exports or bulk record access from authenticated sessions

Detection Strategies

• Implement web application firewall (WAF) rules to detect SQL injection patterns in HTTP requests targeting patient selection endpoints
• Enable detailed database query logging and monitor for anomalous query patterns or syntax errors
• Deploy runtime application self-protection (RASP) solutions to detect SQL injection attempts in real-time
• Analyze authentication logs for accounts performing unusual patient selection queries

Monitoring Recommendations

• Monitor application logs for SQL error messages or database exceptions that may indicate injection attempts
• Set up alerts for bulk data access patterns that deviate from normal user behavior
• Review web server access logs for requests containing encoded SQL injection payloads
• Implement database activity monitoring to track queries against sensitive patient tables

How to Mitigate CVE-2026-33910

Immediate Actions Required

• Upgrade OpenEMR to version 8.0.0.3 or later immediately
• Review database access logs for signs of prior exploitation
• Conduct a security audit of patient data access if compromise is suspected
• Implement additional input validation controls at the network perimeter

Patch Information

OpenEMR has released version 8.0.0.3 which contains a fix for this vulnerability. The patch is available through the official GitHub Release v8.0.0.3. The specific code changes addressing this vulnerability can be reviewed in the security patch commit.

Organizations should prioritize this update given the sensitive nature of electronic health records and regulatory requirements such as HIPAA that mandate protection of patient information.

Workarounds

• Deploy a web application firewall (WAF) with SQL injection detection rules in front of OpenEMR installations
• Restrict network access to OpenEMR to trusted internal networks only until patching is complete
• Implement database-level query restrictions to limit the scope of potential SQL injection damage
• Enable prepared statements and parameterized queries at the database driver level if possible

# Example: Restrict access to OpenEMR via iptables until patched
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 443 -s 10.0.0.0/8 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 443 -j DROP