CVE-2026-24061
Published 2026-01-21 · Updated 2026-09-30 · Source cve@mitre.org
Summary
CVE-2026-24061 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) vulnerability in GNU InetUtils. CISA added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on January 26, 2026, which means exploitation in the wild has been confirmed; US federal agencies had to remediate it by February 16, 2026. CISA does not currently list it as used in ransomware campaigns. GNU has 5 vulnerabilities in the KEV catalog, 0 of them linked to ransomware.
All 5 known-exploited GNU vulnerabilities →Description
telnetd in GNU Inetutils through 2.7 allows remote authentication bypass via a "-f root" value for the USER environment variable.
CVSS vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CISA Known-Exploited Vulnerability
Product: GNU — InetUtils
Name: GNU InetUtils Argument Injection Vulnerability
Date added: 2026-01-26 · Due: 2026-02-16
Required action: Apply mitigations per vendor instructions, follow applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.
References
- https://codeberg.org/inetutils/inetutils/commit/ccba9f748aa8d50a38d7748e2e60362edd6a32cc
- https://codeberg.org/inetutils/inetutils/commit/fd702c02497b2f398e739e3119bed0b23dd7aa7b
- https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-inetutils/2026-01/msg00004.html
- https://redteam.ae/blog/cve-2026-24061-inetutils-telnetd-root-bypass
- https://www.gnu.org/software/inetutils/
- https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/01/20/2
- https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/01/20/8
- https://www.vicarius.io/vsociety/posts/cve-2026-24061-detection-script-remote-authentication-bypass-in-gnu-inetutils-package