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

The Unity Linux 20 host has a package installed that is affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the UTSA-2026-099445 advisory.

    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

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Unity Linux security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The remote SUSE Linux SLED15 / SLED_SAP15 / SLES15 / SLES_SAP15 host has a package installed that is affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the SUSE-SU-2026:3161-1 advisory.

    This update for patch fixes the following issues

    - CVE-2026-56288: crafted unified-diff patch file can cause null pointer derefence (bsc#1271167).
    - CVE-2026-56289: improper validation of hunk line offsets can lead to denial of service (bsc#1271166).

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the SUSE security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The remote SUSE Linux SLES16 / SLES_SAP16 host has a package installed that is affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the SUSE-SU-2026:22651-1 advisory.

    This update for patch fixes the following issues

    - CVE-2026-56288: crafted unified-diff patch file can cause null pointer derefence (bsc#1271167).
    - CVE-2026-56289: improper validation of hunk line offsets can lead to denial of service (bsc#1271166).

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the SUSE security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The remote openSUSE 16 host has a package installed that is affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the openSUSE-SU-2026:21332-1 advisory.

    This update for patch fixes the following issues

    - CVE-2026-56288: crafted unified-diff patch file can cause null pointer derefence (bsc#1271167).
    - CVE-2026-56289: improper validation of hunk line offsets can lead to denial of service (bsc#1271166).

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the SUSE security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The version of CBL-Mariner Releases installed on the remote Azure Linux 3.0 host is prior to tested version. It is, therefore, affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the CVE-2026-56288 advisory.

  - 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 (CVE-2026-56288)

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The remote SUSE Linux SLES12 host has a package installed that is affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the SUSE-SU-2026:2922-1 advisory.

    This update for patch fixes the following issues

    - CVE-2021-45261: Invalid Pointer via another_hunk function (bsc#1194037).
    - CVE-2026-56288: crafted unified-diff patch file can cause null pointer derefence (bsc#1271167).
    - CVE-2026-56289: improper validation of hunk line offsets can lead to denial of service (bsc#1271166).

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the SUSE security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied patch available.

  - 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 (CVE-2026-56288)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Type	Severity
336993	Unity Linux 20.1070e Security Update: patch (UTSA-2026-099445)	Nessus	Unity Linux Local Security Checks	Local	medium
328911	SUSE SLED15 / SLES15 Security Update : patch (SUSE-SU-2026:3161-1)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	Local	medium
327590	SUSE SLES16 Security Update : patch (SUSE-SU-2026:22651-1)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	Local	medium
327227	openSUSE 16 Security Update : patch (openSUSE-SU-2026:21332-1)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	Local	medium
326979	Azure Linux 3.0 Security Update: CBL-Mariner Releases (CVE-2026-56288)	Nessus	Azure Linux Local Security Checks	Local	medium
326962	SUSE SLES12 Security Update : patch (SUSE-SU-2026:2922-1)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	Local	medium
326081	Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-56288	Nessus	Misc.	Local	medium

Detections

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CVE-2026-56288

medium

Tenable Plugins

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medium

medium

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medium

medium

medium