Vulnerability Description
GNU patch is vulnerable to a NULL pointer dereference when processing a specially crafted unified-diff patch file. Improper handling of consecutive end-of-file newline markers can corrupt internal hunk (single block of changes in diff) data structures, causing the application to pass a NULL pointer to fwrite() during patch processing. An attacker can trigger this condition with a malicious patch file, causing the utility to crash and resulting in a denial of service. This issue has been fixed in the commit e6d6a4e021660679d7fc9150f981d4920f722313
CVSS Score
MEDIUM
Affected Products
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
| Gnu | Patch | <= 2.8.0 |
Related Weaknesses (CWE)
References
- https://cert.pl/en/posts/2026/07/CVE-2026-56288Third Party Advisory
- https://cgit.git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/patch.git/PatchProduct
- https://cgit.git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/patch.git/commit/?id=e6d6a4e021660679d7fcPatch
FAQ
What is CVE-2026-56288?
CVE-2026-56288 is a vulnerability with a CVSS score of 5.5 (MEDIUM). GNU patch is vulnerable to a NULL pointer dereference when processing a specially crafted unified-diff patch file. Improper handling of consecutive end-of-file newline markers can corrupt internal hun...
How severe is CVE-2026-56288?
CVE-2026-56288 has been rated MEDIUM with a CVSS base score of 5.5/10. Review the CVSS metrics above for detailed severity breakdown.
Is there a patch for CVE-2026-56288?
Check the references section above for vendor advisories and patch information. Affected products include: Gnu Patch.