CVE-2026-56288
Publication date 9 July 2026
Last updated 16 July 2026
Ubuntu priority
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
Read the notes from the security team
Why is this CVE low priority?
Only a crash in a command line tool
Status
| Package | Ubuntu Release | Status |
|---|---|---|
| patch | 26.04 LTS resolute |
Needs evaluation
|
| 24.04 LTS noble |
Needs evaluation
|
|
| 22.04 LTS jammy |
Needs evaluation
|
|
| 20.04 LTS focal |
Needs evaluation
|
|
| 18.04 LTS bionic |
Needs evaluation
|
|
| 16.04 LTS xenial |
Needs evaluation
|
|
| 14.04 LTS trusty |
Needs evaluation
|
Notes
mdeslaur
This is a crash in a command line tool with little security impact, marking priority as low
Severity score breakdown
CVSS version:
Base score
4.6 · Medium
Vector: 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
Base score
5.5 · Medium
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H