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Ubuntu 14.04 LTS / 16.04 LTS / 18.04 LTS / 20.04 LTS : Inetutils vulnerabilities (USN-7781-1)

critical Nessus Plugin ID 266306

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Synopsis

The remote Ubuntu host is missing one or more security updates.

Description

The remote Ubuntu 14.04 LTS / 16.04 LTS / 18.04 LTS / 20.04 LTS host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the USN-7781-1 advisory.

 Matthew Hickey discovered that Inetutils did not correctly handle certain escape characters. An attacker could possibly use this issue to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2019-0053)

 It was discovered that Inetutils did not correctly handle certain memory operations. An attacker could possibly use this issue to execute arbitrary code. This issue only affected Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.
 (CVE-2020-10188)

 It was discovered that Inetutils did not correctly handle certain memory operations. An attacker could possibly use this issue to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2022-39028)

 It was discovered that Inetutils did not check the return values of set*id functions. An attacker could possibly use this issue to escalate their privileges. (CVE-2023-40303)

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Solution

Update the affected packages.

See Also

https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-7781-1

Plugin Details

Severity: Critical

ID: 266306

File Name: ubuntu_USN-7781-1.nasl

Version: 1.2

Type: local

Agent: unix

Published: 9/30/2025

Updated: 10/1/2025

Supported Sensors: Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Azure, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Nessus Agent, Agentless Assessment, Continuous Assessment, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 6.7

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Critical

Base Score: 10

Temporal Score: 7.8

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2020-10188

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Critical

Base Score: 9.8

Temporal Score: 8.8

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

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:P/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:inetutils-ftpd, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:inetutils-inetd, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:inetutils-ping, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:inetutils-syslogd, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:inetutils-talk, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:inetutils-talkd, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:inetutils-telnetd, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:20.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:inetutils-ftp, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:inetutils-telnet, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:inetutils-tools, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:inetutils-traceroute, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:-:lts

Required KB Items: Host/cpu, Host/Debian/dpkg-l, Host/Ubuntu, Host/Ubuntu/release

Exploit Available: true

Exploit Ease: Exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 9/28/2025

Vulnerability Publication Date: 7/10/2019

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2019-0053, CVE-2020-10188, CVE-2022-39028, CVE-2023-40303

USN: 7781-1