CVE
OpenEMR remote code execution via ERA file upload
Affects OpenEMR before 8.5.0 where billing or payment-posting accounts hold acct/bill or acct/eob write permission. Fixed in 8.5.0.
Written by anthropic/claude-haiku-5.5 from the sources below. Verify against them.
- Exploited
- No known exploitation
- Fix
- Fixed in 8.5.0
- Who is exposed
- Specific setups only
Do first: Check whether your setup matches what the bug needs. OpenEMR versions before 8.5.0 Attacker is an authenticated billing, accounts-receivable, or payment-posting user with acct/bill or acct/eob write permission A write-capable SQL injection or other database-write primitive is needed to change the background-service registry The PHP process running the selected background service must be able to read the upload ERA directory
- Published
- Last modified
- Whether it needs action now or is a reference record, by fixed rules, with why. Last checked is when cve.now last re-read it.What do these mean? →
- Reference
- Last checked
- A 0-100 score for how much a CVE matters across the industry: exploitation, exposure, how widely the software is used, severity and whether a fix exists.What do these mean? →
- 16/100 · provisional
- How many real-world setups can hit the bug, from the vendor's advisory and CISA data. It does not know your setup.What do these mean? →
- Specific setups only
- Whether working attack code is public (Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei or GitHub). Public code makes attacks easier.What do these mean? →
- None on Exploit-DB, Metasploit or GitHub
Summary
OpenEMR before 8.5.0 contains a remote code execution vulnerability that allows authenticated billing users to store attacker-controlled PHP by uploading a malformed ERA file to era_payments.php. Attackers with a database-write primitive such as SQL injection can register a background_services row whose require_once loads the stored .edi file, executing PHP as the web-server user.
Who should check
Teams running OpenEMR before 8.5.0 with billing ERA uploads, especially those whose database accounts allow writes to background_services
Read the source excerpt
“OpenEMR before 8.5.0 contains a remote code execution vulnerability”
cve.now Index
- Exploitation?/40Unknown. No CISA SSVC exploitation rating yet
- Exposure8/25Specific setups only, reachable over the network
- Reach?/20Unknown. No tracked technology or package matched
- Severity7.7/10CVSS 7.7
- No patch0/5No signal
What would change the score
- Would score about 66 if added to CISA KEV
- Would score about 61 if CISA's SSVC rates exploitation active
- Would score about 23 if CISA's SSVC rates it automatable
What to do
Check whether your setup matches what the bug needs.
OpenEMR versions before 8.5.0 Attacker is an authenticated billing, accounts-receivable, or payment-posting user with acct/bill or acct/eob write permission A write-capable SQL injection or other database-write primitive is needed to change the background-service registry The PHP process running the selected background service must be able to read the upload ERA directoryUpgrade to a fixed version: 8.5.0.
Check your systems with an agent
Paste this into a coding or ops agent. It checks your systems read-only and reports a table per asset.
Check whether my systems are affected by CVE-2026-126428 (OpenEMR before 8.5.0 RCE via Stored ERA Upload and Background Services), using the cve.now data below.
Rules: work read-only. Do not run exploit code, proof-of-concept scripts or scanners that send attack payloads, and do not change any configuration, package, image or deployment. Report findings only.
What cve.now has for CVE-2026-126428 (entry last updated 2026-11-13):
Affected:
- openemr openemr: fixed in 8.5.0
Fixed versions: 8.5.0.
Conditions (all must be true for the bug to be hit):
- OpenEMR versions before 8.5.0 (source: https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/openemr-before-8.5.0-rce-via-stored-era-upload-and-background-services)
- Attacker is an authenticated billing, accounts-receivable, or payment-posting user with acct/bill or acct/eob write permission (source: https://github.com/openemr/openemr/security/advisories/GHSA-r6wm-8m2j-c3q9)
- A write-capable SQL injection or other database-write primitive is needed to change the background-service registry (source: https://github.com/openemr/openemr/security/advisories/GHSA-r6wm-8m2j-c3q9)
- The PHP process running the selected background service must be able to read the upload ERA directory (source: https://github.com/openemr/openemr/security/advisories/GHSA-r6wm-8m2j-c3q9)
Setup: unknown whether the bug needs a non-default feature or setting. Check the advisory.
Attacker needs: network access, low-privilege login, no user action.
CISA KEV: CVE-2026-126428 is not listed as of cve.now's last read.
This KEV status is for CVE-2026-126428 only. If you also check another CVE, look up its own KEV status; never assume it from this one.
How to check:
- Installed software: check what is actually running, not what a repo declares. Read the version from each host, container image and Kubernetes node (the binary's version output, the OS package database, image layers), and check whether the conditions above hold there. Distribution packages may carry a backported fix under an older version number; confirm against the distribution's own advisory.
Verify against the linked advisories before concluding, and cite the date you read each one:
- https://github.com/openemr/openemr/security/advisories/GHSA-r6wm-8m2j-c3q9
- https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/openemr-before-8.5.0-rce-via-stored-era-upload-and-background-services
Do not conclude an asset is unaffected unless you checked it and the evidence covers both its version and the conditions above. If you could not check something, mark it unknown and say what is missing.
Report a table with one row per asset and these columns: Asset | Version or build | Status (affected, fixed, not applicable, unknown) | Compensating controls | Exposure (internet-facing, internal, none) | Evidence | Next action.
Entry: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-126428
For follow-up questions, use the cve.now MCP server at https://mcp.cve.now/mcp (no authentication), for example execute with name cve.get and arguments {"id": "CVE-2026-126428"}.Timeline
- CVE published
- First seen by cve.now
Affected versions
- openemr openemr
fixed in 8.5.0
Evidence 4
Vendor advisory · 1
Establishes: Affected and fixed versions.
- Advisory
CVE record · 2
Establishes: The identifier and description.
- Record
- Record
Corrections
None so far.
Something wrong on this page? Report an error. Every fix is listed here.
Questions about CVE-2026-126428
Is CVE-2026-126428 being exploited?
It is not in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, and CISA's SSVC assessment does not mark exploitation as active. That does not mean it has not been attacked: vendors and researchers can report attacks before CISA lists them. No public exploit code is tracked.Source: cve.now feed data
What does this mean?
An authenticated billing, accounts-receivable, or payment-posting user can upload a crafted ERA file and use a database-write primitive to change the background-service registry. The selected background service then runs arbitrary PHP as the OpenEMR web-server user, which can expose application secrets and patient data and allow files and database records to be modified.Source: vulncheck.com, github.com
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-126428?
openemr: before 8.5.0.Source: cve.now feed data
Am I affected, and how do I check?
OpenEMR versions before 8.5.0 are affected. The setup also requires an account with acct/bill or acct/eob write permission, a write-capable SQL injection or other database-write primitive, and a PHP process running the background service that can read the sites/default/documents/era directory. To check a installation, compare the installed OpenEMR version with 8.5.0.Source: vulncheck.com, github.com
How do I fix CVE-2026-126428?
Upgrade OpenEMR to version 8.5.0 or later. The facts do not name any vendor patch ids.Source: vulncheck.com, github.com