Executive Summary

CVE-2025-68277 is a vulnerability in OpenEMR versions prior to 7.0.4 related to the Secure Messaging feature. When a user sends a link via Secure Messaging, clicking the link opens the linked website within the OpenEMR/Portal interface instead of an external browser window.

This behavior can be exploited for phishing attacks because malicious links can appear to be part of the trusted OpenEMR environment, deceiving users into interacting with harmful sites.

The root cause is related to the sanitization process of HTML content in messages, where the DOMPurify library was configured to sanitize HTML but still allowed anchor tags with href attributes, enabling links to open internally.

The issue was fixed in OpenEMR version 7.0.4 by enhancing the sanitization to explicitly forbid anchor and image tags, preventing malicious links from being rendered or converted to text.

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Impact Analysis

This vulnerability can be exploited to conduct phishing attacks within the OpenEMR environment by making malicious links appear as if they are part of the trusted portal.

An attacker with low privileges and requiring user interaction can trick users into clicking harmful links that open inside the OpenEMR interface, increasing the likelihood of successful deception.

The impact includes high confidentiality and integrity risks to both the vulnerable system and any subsequent systems, with a moderate impact on availability.

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Compliance Impact

I don't know

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Detection Guidance

This vulnerability involves the Secure Messaging feature in OpenEMR versions prior to 7.0.4, where links sent via messaging open within the OpenEMR/Portal interface instead of an external browser. Detection involves verifying the OpenEMR version and observing the behavior of links in Secure Messaging.

• Check the OpenEMR version to confirm if it is prior to 7.0.4.
• Test sending a link via Secure Messaging and observe if clicking the link opens the website inside the OpenEMR portal rather than an external browser.
• Review the portal messaging PHP file (`portal/messaging/messages.php`) for the presence or absence of the updated sanitization code that forbids <a> and <img> tags.

Specific commands are not provided in the available resources.

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Mitigation Strategies

The primary mitigation is to upgrade OpenEMR to version 7.0.4 or later, where the vulnerability has been patched.

The patch involves enhancing the sanitization of HTML content in Secure Messaging by forbidding <a> and <img> tags, preventing malicious links from opening inside the portal.

As an interim measure, avoid clicking links sent via Secure Messaging or instruct users to open links in an external browser manually.

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