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No exploitation reportedFix available

CVE-2026-56288

No exploitation reported by the sources we read.

  • Published2026-07-09
  • WeaknessCWE-476

Am I affected?

With a domain, we read the version its public headers and pages expose. A distribution build can carry the fix under an older number.

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

Timeline

dates in UTC
  1. 2026-07-0911:16CVE publishedNVD

Versions per branch

NVD
Gnu patch
BranchAffectedFixed in
2.8≤ 2.8.0no fix published

as publishedRanges as NVD and OSV publish them; a distribution’s build can be fixed under an older number.

Distribution builds and vendor advisories

Packages from OSV.dev and products from the vendors' CSAF advisories.

version not verifiedVersions not verified: read as OSV.dev and the vendors publish them, not checked against each vendor's release list.

Packages

  • patchUbuntu:Pro:14.04:LTSall versions · no fixed version listed
  • patchUbuntu:26.10all versions · no fixed version listed
  • patchUbuntu:26.04:LTSall versions · no fixed version listed
  • patchUbuntu:25.10all versions · no fixed version listed
  • patchUbuntu:24.04:LTSall versions · no fixed version listed
  • patchUbuntu:22.04:LTSall versions · no fixed version listed
  • patchUbuntu:20.04:LTSall versions · no fixed version listed
  • patchUbuntu:18.04:LTSall versions · no fixed version listed

31 more package ranges on OSV.dev

Full record on NVD

Fix

Advisories and patches

Detection

Nuclei template
none so far
ProjectDiscovery
Exploit-DB
no entry
Exploit-DB
Proof of concept
Metasploit modules
none listed
Metasploit Framework

Sources

Identifiers

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CVSS 4.0 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/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
Published
2026-07-09
Last Modified
2026-10-25
NVD status
Analyzed
GitHub Advisory
GHSA-m3j2-9m66-r96h

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-56288?

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

Is CVE-2026-56288 actively exploited?

Active exploitation of CVE-2026-56288 has not been confirmed. Its EPSS score was 0.1% on 2026-11-09, the estimated probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2026-56288?

CVE-2026-56288 has a CVSS v3 base score of 5.5 (MEDIUM severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

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