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VulnerabilityPublished Updated

CVE-2026-24061: GNU Inetutils · Argument Injection

Affects GNU InetutilsSource CVE Database V5

0

Exploited in the wild · KEV due 16 Feb 2026 · public exploit available (Metasploit, Exploit-DB) · 98% EPSS : apply the vendor's fix or mitigations to GNU Inetutils now.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 14:05 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score
9.8Critical
How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.
KEV deadline
 US federal agencies must patch by this date; a sensible deadline for everyone else. Other KEV due dates
EPSS
98.9% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 99% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Exploitation evidence

t = 0 is the CVE’s publication on cve.org

  1. Disclosed: evidence found.

    CVE published 21 Jan 2026

  2. Detectable: no evidence on record.

    No public nuclei template indexed

  3. Exploited in the wild: evidence found.

    Listed in CISA KEV 5 days after disclosure

  4. Observed by OffSeq Mirage: no evidence on record.

    No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

Timeline

  1. CVE ID reserved

    by MITRE Corporation

    , 1 minute before disclosure

  2. CVE published

    on cve.org

    , t = 0

  3. In Threat Radar

    record ingested

    , 24 minutes after disclosure

  4. , 5 days after disclosure

  5. KEV remediation due

    US federal deadline

    , 26 days after disclosure

  6. First Exploit-DB entry (opens in a new tab)

    GNU InetUtils 2.6 - Telnetd Remote Privilege Escalation

    , 98 days after disclosure

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), CISA KEV (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

What to do

Affected software

ProductAffectedFixed in
GNUInetutilsAffected
  • >=1.9.3 <=2.7
Fixed in–

Description

telnetd in GNU Inetutils through 2.7 allows remote authentication bypass via a "-f root" value for the USER environment variable.

References

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