CVE-2026-24061
GNU InetUtils Argument Injection Vulnerability
Does this matter?
Known to be exploited in the wild (CISA KEV, CISA remediation deadline 16 February 2026). Treat as an emergency change: patch or isolate now, then hunt for prior compromise.
Description
telnetd in GNU Inetutils through 2.7 allows remote authentication bypass via a "-f root" value for the USER environment variable.
- CVSS 3.1
- 9.8 CRITICALCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- EPSS
- 98.98% probability · 100th percentile
- Public exploits
- 1 in Exploit-DB · first 29 April 2026
- CISA KEV
- Listed 26 January 2026 · due 16 February 2026
- Weakness
- CWE-88
- Affected
- gnu/inetutils · debian/debian linux
- Source
- cve@mitre.org
EPSS 99.0% since 31 October 2026; no change recorded yet. The dashed line is the ten per cent mark our analysts treat as “patch before the next change window”. Points are recorded when the score first appears and whenever it moves by a percentage point or more.
CISA notes
Apply mitigations per vendor instructions, follow applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable. This vulnerability could affect an open-source component, third-party library, protocol, or proprietary implementation that could be used by different products. For more information, please see: https://cgit.git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/inetutils.git ; https://codeberg.org/inetutils/inetutils/commit/ccba9f748aa8d50a38d7748e2e60362edd6a32cc; https://codeberg.org/inetutils/inetutils/commit/fd702c02497b2f398e739e3119bed0b23dd7aa7b ; https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-24061
Public exploits (1)
Entries in Exploit-DB that cite this CVE. Links go to the Exploit-DB page and to the file in the public repository; nothing is hosted here. A verified tick means the Exploit-DB team confirmed the exploit works against the stated version.
References
- https://codeberg.org/inetutils/inetutils/commit/ccba9f748aa8d50a38d7748e2e60362edd6a32ccPatch
- https://codeberg.org/inetutils/inetutils/commit/fd702c02497b2f398e739e3119bed0b23dd7aa7bPatch
- https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-inetutils/2026-01/msg00004.htmlMitigation, Vendor Advisory
- https://redteam.ae/blog/cve-2026-24061-inetutils-telnetd-root-bypassExploit, Third Party Advisory
- https://www.gnu.org/software/inetutils/Product
- https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/01/20/2Mailing List
- https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/01/20/8Mailing List
- https://www.vicarius.io/vsociety/posts/cve-2026-24061-detection-script-remote-authentication-bypass-in-gnu-inetutils-packageThird Party Advisory
- https://www.vicarius.io/vsociety/posts/cve-2026-24061-mitigation-script-remote-authentication-bypass-in-gnu-inetutils-packageMitigation, Third Party Advisory
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/01/22/1Mailing List
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2026/01/msg00025.htmlMailing List, Third Party Advisory
- https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2026-24061US Government Resource
- https://www.labs.greynoise.io/grimoire/2026-01-22-f-around-and-find-out-18-hours-of-unsolicited-houseguests/index.htmlExploit, Third Party Advisory
- https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/01/20/2#:~:text=root@...a%3A~%20USER='Mailing List, Third Party Advisory
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA, exploits from Exploit-DB. Refreshed daily. Download this record as JSON.