CVE-2026-56288
Published: July 11, 2026Last modified: October 31, 2026
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
Severity score breakdown
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Base score | 5.5 |
| Attack Vector | LOCAL |
| Attack complexity | LOW |
| Privileges required | LOW |
| User interaction | NONE |
| Scope | UNCHANGED |
| Confidentiality | NONE |
| Integrity impact | NONE |
| Availability impact | HIGH |
| Vector | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H |
Status
| Product | Release | Package | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alpaquita Linux | 23 LTS | patch | Fixed (2.7.6-r10) |
| 25 LTS | patch | Fixed (2.8.1-r0) | |
| Stream | patch | Fixed (2.8.1-r0) | |
| Hardened Containers | 23 LTS | patch | Fixed (2.7.6-r10) |
| 25 LTS | patch | Fixed (2.8.1-r0) | |
| Stream | patch | Fixed (2.8.1-r0) |