CVE-2022-1459
📋 TL;DR
This vulnerability allows non-privileged users to view patient disclosure information in OpenEMR, violating patient privacy and confidentiality. It affects OpenEMR installations prior to version 6.1.0.1. Healthcare organizations using vulnerable versions are impacted.
💻 Affected Systems
- OpenEMR
📦 What is this software?
Openemr by Open Emr
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Mass patient privacy breach with unauthorized access to sensitive medical disclosures, leading to regulatory violations (HIPAA), reputational damage, and potential legal liability.
Likely Case
Unauthorized viewing of patient disclosure records by non-privileged users, compromising patient confidentiality and violating privacy regulations.
If Mitigated
Minimal impact with proper access controls and patched systems, maintaining patient privacy as intended.
🎯 Exploit Status
Requires authenticated non-privileged user access. The vulnerability is in authorization logic, not authentication.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 6.1.0.1 and later
Vendor Advisory: https://github.com/openemr/openemr/commit/8f8a97724c0e8fcc4096b4b30af9aaf064ada45a
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
1. Backup your OpenEMR installation and database. 2. Update to OpenEMR version 6.1.0.1 or later. 3. Verify the patch is applied by checking the version and testing access controls.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Restrict User Permissions
allTemporarily restrict non-privileged user access to patient disclosure modules until patching is complete.
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement strict access controls and audit all user permissions
- Enable detailed logging of all patient disclosure access attempts
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check OpenEMR version in admin interface or via version.php file. If version is below 6.1.0.1, system is vulnerable.Check Version:
Check /interface/login/login.php or admin panel for version informationVerify Fix Applied:
After updating, test with non-privileged user account to ensure patient disclosure information is no longer accessible.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unauthorized access attempts to patient disclosure pages by non-privileged users
- Multiple patient disclosure views from single non-privileged account
Network Indicators:
- Unusual patterns of requests to patient disclosure endpoints
SIEM Query:
source="openemr_logs" AND (uri_path="*disclosure*" OR uri_path="*patient*disclosure*") AND user_role="non_privileged"