NULL Pointer Dereference in GNU patch

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Summary

CVECVE-2026-56288
StatePUBLISHED
AssignerCERT-PL
Source PriorityCVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback
Published2026-07-09 11:16:40 UTC
Updated2026-07-13 14:08:47 UTC
DescriptionGNU 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

Risk And Classification

Primary CVSS: v4.0 4.6 MEDIUM from [email protected]

CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X

EPSS: 0.001250000 probability, percentile 0.025900000 (date 2026-07-13)

Problem Types: CWE-476 | CWE-476 CWE-476 NULL Pointer Dereference

VersionSourceTypeScoreSeverityVector
4.0[email protected]Secondary4.6MEDIUMCVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/C...
4.0CNACVSS4.6MEDIUMCVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
3.1[email protected]Primary5.5MEDIUMCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

CVSS v4.0 Breakdown

Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
Low
Attack Requirements
None
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
Active
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
Low
Sub Conf.
None
Sub Integrity
None
Sub Availability
None

CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X

CVSS v3.1 Breakdown

Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

NVD Known Affected Configurations (CPE 2.3)

TypeVendorProductVersionUpdateEditionLanguage
Application Gnu Patch All All All All

Vendor Declared Affected Products

SourceVendorProductVersionPlatforms
CNA GNU Patch affected 2.8.0 semver Not specified

References

ReferenceSourceLinkTags
cert.pl/en/posts/2026/07/CVE-2026-56288 [email protected] cert.pl Third Party Advisory
cgit.git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/patch.git [email protected] cgit.git.savannah.gnu.org Patch, Product
cgit.git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/patch.git/commit [email protected] cgit.git.savannah.gnu.org Patch
CVE Program record CVE.ORG www.cve.org canonical
NVD vulnerability detail NVD nvd.nist.gov canonical, analysis

Vendor Comments And Credit

Discovery Credit

CNA: Michał Majchrowicz (AFINE Team) (en)

CNA: Marcin Wyczechowski (AFINE Team) (en)

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