5.5

CVE-2026-56288: gnu patch NULL Pointer Dereference

CVSS: 5.5v3.1MediumAnalyzed
AliasesRHSA-2026:38019UBUNTU-CVE-2026-56288DEBIAN-CVE-2026-56288
Published 09-07-2026Last modified 09-07-2026
Open JSON

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2026-56288 is a medium (CVSS 5.5) NULL Pointer Dereference vulnerability in gnu patch. EPSS estimates a 0.11% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 1.4% of scored vulnerabilities.

Overall risk
22/100
0100
Low · default modelHow is this calculated?
CVSS score
5.5/10
010
Medium · v3.1 (NVD)
EPSS score
0.11%
0%100%
Low · -0.05 pp in 30 days
KEVNot listedIn no KEV catalog
RansomwareNone recordedNo known use recorded
Public exploits0No public exploits recorded

Advisory lineage

Upstream 0 · Downstream 9 · Related 8
MGASA-2026-0423OPENSUSE-SU-2026:11260-1OPENSUSE-SU-2026:21332-1SUSE-SU-2026:22604-1SUSE-SU-2026:22651-1SUSE-SU-2026:22905-1

Timeline

  1. 09-07-2026
    PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
  2. 09-07-2026
    Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

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

CVSS metrics

7 scores · 5 sources · 2 versions

EPSS trend

Probability

0.11%

Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days

Percentile

1%

Versus all other CVEs

30-day change

-0.05 pp

From 0.17% on 19-09-2026

19-09-202619-10-2026
EPSS score
0.11%

Known exploited

Compare KEV catalogs

Not in any of the 3 tracked catalogs.

Public exploits

0 found

No public exploits indexed.

Weaknesses

CWE · root cause

Affected systems

Debian1 product
  • patchAll versions (No fix recorded)
Gnu1 product
Redhat1 product
  • patch< 0:2.8-4.3.hum1
Ubuntu1 product
  • patchAll versions (No fix recorded)

4 vendors · 4 products

References

13 links
Show all 13 references