Improper access control in OpenEMR - #VU158853
Published: November 3, 2026
Vulnerability identifier: #VU158853
CSH Severity: Low
CVSS v4: 7.1 [CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N]
CVE-ID: N/A
CWE-ID: CWE-284
Exploitation vector: Remote access
Exploit availability:
No public exploit available
Vulnerability details
The vulnerability allows a remote user to create unauthorized medication-dispensing records and reduce pharmacy inventory.
The vulnerability exists due to improper access control in OpenEMR's interface/drugs/dispense_drug.php endpoint when handling medication-dispensing requests without requiring write permission for admin/drugs. A remote user can submit a GET request with medication, quantity, fee, and encounter parameters using read-only drug-administration permission to create a dispensing record for the selected patient and decrement inventory.
Exploitation requires a deployment using in-house drug dispensing and an active patient encounter selected in the read-only account's session.
Affected software
OpenEMR
Remediation
Install security update from vendor's website.
OpenEMR - update to 8.5.0