CVE-2026-24061
9.8, critical Known exploitedGNU InetUtils Argument Injection Vulnerability
- CVSS
- 9.8, critical critical CVSS v3.1
- EPSS, next 30 days
- 99% higher than 99.9% of scored CVEs
- Exploitation
- Confirmed in the wild
- Published
- 21 Jan 20268 months ago
Known exploited
CISA added this to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog on 26 Jan 2026. US federal agencies had to remediate by 16 Feb 2026, a deadline that has passed.
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.
Description
telnetd in GNU Inetutils through 2.7 allows remote authentication bypass via a "-f root" value for the USER environment variable.
Details
- Vendor
- GNU
- Product
- Inetutils
- Weakness
- CWE-88 (opens in a new tab)
- Status
- Analyzed
- Updated
- 30 Sept 2026
- Assigner
- cve@mitre.org
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
References 14
Exploit code 2
Patches and fixes 2
Advisories 8
- openwall.com /lists/oss-security/2026/01/22/1 (opens in a new tab)
- lists.debian.org /debian-lts-announce/2026/01/msg00025.html (opens in a new tab)
- lists.gnu.org /archive/html/bug-inetutils/2026-01/msg00004.html (opens in a new tab)
- openwall.com /lists/oss-security/2026/01/20/2 (opens in a new tab)
- openwall.com /lists/oss-security/2026/01/20/2#:~:text=root@...a%3A~%20USER=' (opens in a new tab)
- openwall.com /lists/oss-security/2026/01/20/8 (opens in a new tab)
- vicarius.io /vsociety/posts/cve-2026-24061-detection-script-remote-authentication-bypass-in-gnu-inetutils-package (opens in a new tab)
- vicarius.io /vsociety/posts/cve-2026-24061-mitigation-script-remote-authentication-bypass-in-gnu-inetutils-package (opens in a new tab)
The kind is read from NVD's tags where present and from the shape of the URL otherwise, so treat it as a hint.
Other GNU CVEs
Every GNU CVE we holdSame vendor in what we hold, not a known link between the flaws.
- CVE-2023-4911 GNU C Library Buffer Overflow Vulnerability KEV EPSS 64% 7.8, high
- CVE-2014-6278 GNU Bash OS Command Injection Vulnerability KEV EPSS 100% 8.8, high
- CVE-2014-7169 GNU Bourne-Again Shell (Bash) Arbitrary Code Execution Vulnerability KEV EPSS 100% 9.8, critical
- CVE-2014-6271 GNU Bourne-Again Shell (Bash) Arbitrary Code Execution Vulnerability KEV EPSS 100% 9.8, critical
Beyond this page
Is CVE-2026-24061 in your network?
This page tells you how dangerous CVE-2026-24061 is out there. Whether it sits on one of your devices, only a scan of your own network can tell. That is what our systems do, every day, for the companies we protect.
CVE-2026-24061 is in the CISA catalogue of exploited vulnerabilities: attackers are already exploiting it.
-
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Detect it if it's exploited
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Assembled from the NVD 2.0 API, the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog and FIRST EPSS. Scores are as of our last collection on 17 Oct 2026, not the live upstream state.