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GNU Inetutils telnetd Remote Authentication Bypass (CVE-2026-24061)

critical Nessus Plugin ID 297230

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Synopsis

The remote telnetd service is affected by an authentication bypass vulnerability.

Description

The telnetd server in GNU Inetutils passes the value of the USER environment variable received from a client to the system's login(1) program without sanitization.

An unauthenticated, remote attacker can set this value to '-f root' and bypass normal authentication, resulting in a root login.

Solution

Upgeade to a version greater than 2.7.

See Also

https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/01/20/2

Plugin Details

Severity: Critical

ID: 297230

File Name: telnetd_cve-2026-24061.nbin

Version: 1.3

Type: remote

Family: Misc.

Published: 1/30/2026

Updated: 2/12/2026

Supported Sensors: Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Critical

Score: 9.5

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Critical

Base Score: 10

Temporal Score: 8.3

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

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2026-24061

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Critical

Base Score: 9.8

Temporal Score: 9.1

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:F/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/a:gnu:inetutils

Exploit Available: true

Exploit Ease: Exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 1/20/2026

Vulnerability Publication Date: 1/21/2026

CISA Known Exploited Vulnerability Due Dates: 2/16/2026

Exploitable With

Core Impact

Metasploit (GNU Inetutils Telnet Authentication Bypass Exploit CVE-2026-24061)

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2026-24061