Vulnerability details
CVE-2026-24061
Actively exploited
GNU Inetutils
CVSS 3.1
9.8Critical
Official description
telnetd in GNU Inetutils through 2.7 allows remote authentication bypass via a "-f root" value for the USER environment variable.
CVSS scores
| Score | Version | Source | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9.8Critical | 3.1 | CVEProject cvelistV5 (CNA) (mitre) | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Versions | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| GNU | Inetutils | 1.9.3 ≤ v ≤ 2.7 | CVEProject cvelistV5 (CNA) |
References and advisories
14- https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/01/20/2
- https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/01/20/8
- https://www.gnu.org/software/inetutils/
- https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-inetutils/2026-01/msg00004.html
- https://codeberg.org/inetutils/inetutils/commit/fd702c02497b2f398e739e3119bed0b23dd7aa7b
- https://codeberg.org/inetutils/inetutils/commit/ccba9f748aa8d50a38d7748e2e60362edd6a32cc
- https://www.vicarius.io/vsociety/posts/cve-2026-24061-detection-script-remote-authentication-bypass-in-gnu-inetutils-package
- https://www.vicarius.io/vsociety/posts/cve-2026-24061-mitigation-script-remote-authentication-bypass-in-gnu-inetutils-package
- https://redteam.ae/blog/cve-2026-24061-inetutils-telnetd-root-bypass
- https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/01/20/2#:~:text=root@...a%3A~%20USER=' exploit
- https://www.labs.greynoise.io/grimoire/2026-01-22-f-around-and-find-out-18-hours-of-unsolicited-houseguests/index.html third-party-advisory
- https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2026-24061 government-resource
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/01/22/1
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2026/01/msg00025.html
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Details
- Published
- 2026-01-21
- Last updated
- 2026-09-29
- State
- Published
- Assigner (CNA)
- mitre
- Kolun priority
- 90 · Critical
CISA KEV catalog
- Date added
- 2026-01-26
- Due date
- 2026-02-16
- Used in ransomware
- Unknown
Exploit prediction (EPSS)
98.98%
Probability of exploitation in 30 days
99.9%
Percentile (among all CVEs)
SSVC assessment (CISA)
- Automatable
- Yes
- Exploitation
- Active
- Technical impact
- Total
Weaknesses (CWE)
- CWE-88Improper Neutralization of Argument Delimiters in a Command ('Argument Injection')