diff --git a/api/src/Db.php b/api/src/Db.php
index af9c1bad2a..99eedbe234 100644
--- a/api/src/Db.php
+++ b/api/src/Db.php
@@ -757,7 +757,7 @@ class Db
 	* @throws Db\Exception\InvalidSql for SQL syntax errors
 	* @throws Db\Exception with $this->Link_ID->ErrorNo() as code for all other errors
 	*/
-	function query($Query_String, $line = '', $file = '', $offset=0, $num_rows=-1, $inputarr=false, $fetchmode=self::FETCH_BOTH, $reconnect=true)
+	function query($Query_String, $line = '', $file = '', int $offset=0, int $num_rows=-1, $inputarr=false, $fetchmode=self::FETCH_BOTH, $reconnect=true)
 	{
 		if ($Query_String == '')
 		{
@@ -2291,7 +2291,7 @@ class Db
 		{
 			return $sql;
 		}
-		return $this->query($sql,$line,$file,$offset,$offset===False ? -1 : (int)$num_rows,false,$fetchmode);
+		return $this->query($sql, $line, $file, (int)$offset, $offset===False ? -1 : (int)$num_rows, false, $fetchmode);
 	}
 
 	/**
diff --git a/api/src/Etemplate/Widget/Nextmatch.php b/api/src/Etemplate/Widget/Nextmatch.php
index 1980c5bbc5..fc4eec4494 100644
--- a/api/src/Etemplate/Widget/Nextmatch.php
+++ b/api/src/Etemplate/Widget/Nextmatch.php
@@ -336,7 +336,7 @@ class Nextmatch extends Etemplate\Widget
 		// Parse sort into something that get_rows functions are expecting: db_field in order, ASC/DESC in sort
 		if(is_array($value['sort']))
 		{
-			$value['order'] = $value['sort']['id'];
+			$value['order'] = preg_match('/^[a-z0-9_]+$/', $value['sort']['id']) ? $value['sort']['id'] : '';
 			$value['sort'] = $value['sort']['asc'] ? 'ASC' : 'DESC';
 		}
 
diff --git a/api/src/Link.php b/api/src/Link.php
index 3e1c0b738d..1dba0bea35 100644
--- a/api/src/Link.php
+++ b/api/src/Link.php
@@ -812,6 +812,11 @@ class Link extends Link\Storage
 			$options['num_rows'] = max((int)$GLOBALS['egw_info']['user']['preference']['common']['maxmatchs'], self::DEFAULT_NUM_ROWS);
 		}
 
+		if (isset($options['order']) && !preg_match(preg_match('/^[a-z0-9_]+$/', $options['order'])))
+		{
+			unset($options['order'], $options['sort']);
+		}
+
 		$result = self::exec($method, array($pattern, &$options));
 
 		if (!isset($options['total']))
diff --git a/api/src/Storage/Base.php b/api/src/Storage/Base.php
index 45b4af6a8e..c4677416f6 100644
--- a/api/src/Storage/Base.php
+++ b/api/src/Storage/Base.php
@@ -966,6 +966,8 @@ class Base
 		$num_rows = 0;	// as spec. in max_matches in the user-prefs
 		if (is_array($start)) list($start,$num_rows) = $start+[null,null];
 
+		$order_by = self::sanitizeOrderBy($order_by);
+
 		// fix GROUP BY clause to contain all non-aggregate selected columns
 		if ($order_by && stripos($order_by,'GROUP BY') !== false)
 		{
@@ -1066,6 +1068,39 @@ class Base
 		return $arr;
 	}
 
+
+	/**
+	 * Sanitize (currently just remove) not understood ORDER BY clause
+	 *
+	 * @param string $fragment SQL fragment containing ORDER BY clause, could also contain GROUP BY etc
+	 * @return string sanitized version of $_order_by
+	 */
+	static function sanitizeOrderBy(string $fragment)
+	{
+		// check fragment contains ORDER BY --> just operate on what's behind
+		if (stripos($fragment,'ORDER BY') !== false)
+		{
+			[$group_by, $order_by] = preg_split('/order +by +/i', $fragment);
+		}
+		// check fragment not just contain GROUP BY or HAVING --> nothing to do
+		elseif ($fragment === '' || stripos($fragment,'GROUP BY')!==false || stripos($fragment,'HAVING')!==false)
+		{
+			return $fragment;
+		}
+		// fragment is ORDER BY clause
+		else
+		{
+			$order_by = $fragment;
+		}
+		if (!preg_match_all("/(#?[a-zA-Z_.]+) *(<> *''|IS NULL|IS NOT NULL|& *\d+)? *(ASC|DESC)?(,|$)/ui", $order_by, $all_matches) ||
+			$order_by !== implode('', $all_matches[0]))
+		{
+			//error_log(__METHOD__."(".json_encode($fragment).") REMOVED");
+			return $group_by??'';
+		}
+		return $fragment;
+	}
+
 	/**
 	 * Parse an array of search criteria into something that can be passed on
 	 * to the DB
diff --git a/infolog/inc/class.infolog_so.inc.php b/infolog/inc/class.infolog_so.inc.php
index 64deb39adb..c8b6d29ba4 100644
--- a/infolog/inc/class.infolog_so.inc.php
+++ b/infolog/inc/class.infolog_so.inc.php
@@ -821,7 +821,7 @@ class infolog_so
 			}
 		}
 		$sortbycf='';
-		if (!empty($query['order']) && (preg_match('/^[a-z_0-9, ]+$/i',$query['order']) || stripos($query['order'],'#')!==FALSE ) &&
+		if (!empty($query['order']) && preg_match('/^#?[a-z_0-9, ]+$/i',$query['order']) &&
 			(empty($query['sort']) || is_string($query['sort']) && preg_match('/^(DESC|ASC)$/i',$query['sort'])))
 		{
 			$order = array();