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

critical Nessus Plugin ID 297230

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: 1.1

Type: remote

Family: Misc.

Published: 1/30/2026

Updated: 1/30/2026

Supported Sensors: Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Critical

Score: 9.2

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Critical

Base Score: 10

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

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

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/a:gnu:inetutils

Exploit Ease: Exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 1/20/2026

Vulnerability Publication Date: 1/21/2026

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2026-24061