Vulnerability record · CVE-2026-56288 · published 9 July 2026

CVE-2026-56288: Gnu patch null pointer dereference vulnerability

Gnu · Patch

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

4.6 CVSS 4.0 Medium EPSS 0.17% · top 94.6% CWE-476 · NULL pointer dereference

4.6CVSS 4.0 base score

0.17%EPSS exploitation probability, 30 days

NoNot in CISA KEV

1Affected product versions listed by NVD

3References

13 Jul 2026Last modified by NVD

Description

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:

Affected products

1 vulnerable configurations from NVD's CPE data, grouped by vendor and product.

Patch Gnu

References

Link	Tags
https://cert.pl/en/posts/2026/07/CVE-2026-56288	Third Party Advisory
https://cgit.git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/patch.git/	PatchProduct
https://cgit.git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/patch.git/commit/?id=e6d6a4e021660679d7fc9150f981d4920f722313	Patch

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Related vulnerabilities

Same products first, then exploited flaws of the same weakness class.

7.8CVE-2018-20969Gnu patch os command injection vulnerabilitydo_ed_script in pch.c in GNU patch through 2.7.6 does not block strings beginning with a ! character. NOTE: this is the same commit as for CVE-2019-1…EPSS 2.7%16 Aug 2019 7.8CVE-2019-13638Gnu patch os command injection vulnerabilityGNU patch through 2.7.6 is vulnerable to OS shell command injection that can be exploited by opening a crafted patch file that contains an ed style d…EPSS 4.5%26 Jul 2019 7.8CVE-2018-1000156Gnu patch improper input validation vulnerabilityGNU Patch version 2.7.6 contains an input validation vulnerability when processing patch files, specifically the EDITOR_PROGRAM invocation (using ed)…EPSS 5.3%6 Apr 2018 7.5CVE-2015-1396Gnu patch path traversal vulnerabilityA Directory Traversal vulnerability exists in the GNU patch before 2.7.4. A remote attacker can write to arbitrary files via a symlink attack in a pa…EPSS 3.3%25 Nov 2019 7.5CVE-2018-6951Gnu patch null pointer dereference vulnerabilityAn issue was discovered in GNU patch through 2.7.6. There is a segmentation fault, associated with a NULL pointer dereference, leading to a denial of…EPSS 8.4%13 Feb 2018 7.5CVE-2018-6952Gnu patch double free vulnerabilityA double free exists in the another_hunk function in pch.c in GNU patch through 2.7.6.EPSS 8.2%13 Feb 2018 7.5CVE-2015-1395Fedoraproject fedora path traversal vulnerabilityDirectory traversal vulnerability in GNU patch versions which support Git-style patching before 2.7.3 allows remote attackers to write to arbitrary f…EPSS 11%25 Aug 2017 5.9CVE-2019-13636Gnu patch link following vulnerabilityIn GNU patch through 2.7.6, the following of symlinks is mishandled in certain cases other than input files. This affects inp.c and util.c.EPSS 3.9%17 Jul 2019

Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database (record CVE-2026-56288), CISA KEV, FIRST EPSS (scores of 2026-09-26). This page is refreshed as NVD updates the record.