Here is an article on how to check and or install new patches :
To find the OPatch tool setup your database enviroment variables and then issue this comand:
cd $ORACLE_HOME/OPatch
> pwd
/oracle/app/product/10.2.0/db_1/OPatch
To list all the patches applies to your database use the lsinventory option:
[oracle@DCG023 8828328]$ opatch lsinventory
Oracle Interim Patch Installer version 11.2.0.3.4
Copyright (c) 2012, Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved.
Oracle Home : /u00/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1
Central Inventory : /u00/oraInventory
from : /u00/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1/oraInst.loc
OPatch version : 11.2.0.3.4
OUI version : 11.2.0.1.0
Log file location : /u00/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1/cfgtoollogs/opatch/opatch2013-11-13_13-55-22PM_1.log
Lsinventory Output file location : /u00/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1/cfgtoollogs/opatch/lsinv/lsinventory2013-11-13_13-55-22PM.txt
Installed Top-level Products (1):
Oracle Database 11g 11.2.0.1.0
There are 1 products installed in this Oracle Home.
Interim patches (1) :
Patch 8405205 : applied on Mon Aug 19 15:18:04 BRT 2013
Unique Patch ID: 11805160
Created on 23 Sep 2009, 02:41:32 hrs PST8PDT
Bugs fixed:
8405205
OPatch succeeded.
To list the patches using sql :
select * from registry$history;
I understand the original post is for Oracle 10 but this is for reference by anyone else who finds it via Google.
Under Oracle 12c, I found that that my registry$history is empty. This works instead:
select * from registry$sqlpatch;
Maybe you need "sys." before:
select * from sys.registry$history;
Source: Stackoverflow.com