Patch

GNU patch enters an infinite CPU-consuming loop when processing a specially crafted unified-diff file containing an excessively large hunk line offset, resulting in a denial of service. The utility becomes unresponsive and must be manually terminated, impacting any pipeline, CI/CD system, or developer workflow that applies untrusted patch files. No public exploit has been identified at time of analysis, and an upstream fix commit has been published by the maintainers on Savannah; a formally tagged release is not yet independently confirmed.

GNU patch crashes with a NULL pointer dereference when a user applies a specially crafted unified-diff file, resulting in denial of service. Improper handling of consecutive end-of-file newline markers corrupts internal hunk data structures, causing a NULL pointer to be passed to fwrite() during processing. No public exploit has been identified at time of analysis and no CISA KEV listing exists; real-world impact is constrained by the requirement for user interaction with a malicious file.

Tanium addressed an incorrect default permissions vulnerability in Patch. [CVSS 6.5 MEDIUM]

Tanium addressed an improper access controls vulnerability in Patch. [CVSS 4.3 MEDIUM]

An Invalid Pointer vulnerability exists in GNU patch 2.7 via the another_hunk function, which causes a Denial of Service. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.

GNU 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 diff payload with shell metacharacters. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. This OS Command Injection vulnerability could allow attackers to execute arbitrary operating system commands on the host.

In GNU patch through 2.7.6, the following of symlinks is mishandled in certain cases other than input files. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.9), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required.

GNU Patch version 2.7.6 contains an input validation vulnerability when processing patch files, specifically the EDITOR_PROGRAM invocation (using ed) can result in code execution. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.

A double free exists in the another_hunk function in pch.c in GNU patch through 2.7.6. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.

An issue was discovered in GNU patch through 2.7.6. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. This NULL Pointer Dereference vulnerability could allow attackers to crash the application by dereferencing a null pointer.

Directory traversal vulnerability in GNU patch versions which support Git-style patching before 2.7.3 allows remote attackers to write to arbitrary files with the permissions of the target user via a. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. This Path Traversal vulnerability could allow attackers to access files and directories outside the intended path.

GNU patch 2.7.2 and earlier allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption and segmentation fault) via a crafted diff file. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity.

GNU patch 2.7.1 allows remote attackers to write to arbitrary files via a symlink attack in a patch file. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable. Public exploit code available.