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PatchApplication · Gnu

CVE-2018-6952

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.0 Published 2018-02-13
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 2.7.6 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
A double free exists in the another_hunk function in pch.c in GNU patch through 2.7.6.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

A double-free vulnerability exists in the another_hunk function in pch.c in GNU patch versions 2.7.6 and earlier. This memory corruption flaw occurs when the same memory pointer is freed twice, which can lead to denial of service or potentially arbitrary code execution.

MitigationUpdate GNU patch to a version beyond 2.7.6 that contains the fix for this vulnerability. Alternatively, if updating is not immediately feasible, implement input validation or restrict patch file processing to trusted sources only.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
PatchApplication
Affected:<= 2.7.6

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Check GNU patch installed version
    Run `patch --version` or `patch -v` to display version information
    Affected if The version displayed is 2.7.6 or earlier
  2. Verify patch binary package version
    On Debian/Ubuntu: `dpkg -l | grep patch`. On RHEL/CentOS: `rpm -q patch`. On macOS: `brew info patch`. Compare the package version number to 2.7.6
    Affected if The installed package version is 2.7.6 or earlier
  3. Confirm patch binary location
    Run `which patch` to locate the binary, then run `patch --version` on that specific binary if multiple versions exist
    Affected if The binary being used is version 2.7.6 or earlier

If the installed GNU patch version is 2.7.6 or earlier, the environment is affected by this double-free vulnerability when processing patch files.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 2.7.6
Interim mitigation

Update GNU patch to a version beyond 2.7.6 that contains the fix for this vulnerability. Alternatively, if updating is not immediately feasible, implement input validation or restrict patch file processing to trusted sources only.

Fix this in Patch Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing1.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
5.0 hours of engineering $890
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,424.

Scan for this in your stack

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2018-6952 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data