CVE-2026-24061

GNU InetUtils: Argument Injection

As of , CVE-2026-24061 in GNU InetUtils is on CISA's list of exploited vulnerabilities: CISA listed it on . Our patch-first group: Patch this week.

Exploited
Yes: CISA listed it on 26 January 2026
US federal deadline
16 February 202621 days after CISA listed it. US federal civilian agencies must fix it by then.
Used in ransomware campaigns
Not known to CISA
EPSS score
0.99Higher than 99% of the CVEs EPSS scores. EPSS estimates the chance of exploitation activity in the next 30 days.
Public exploit
1 Metasploit module and 1 Exploit-DB entry
Fix
Vendor advice: cgit.git.savannah.gnu.org and codeberg.orgLinks below, from CISA's entry.

What CISA says to do

Apply mitigations per vendor instructions, follow applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.

CISA's required action

What the flaw is

GNU InetUtils contains an argument injection vulnerability in telnetd that could allow for remote authentication bypass via a "-f root" value for the USER environment variable.

CISA's description

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

The CVE record's description, from mitre

CVE published
21 January 2026
Assigned by
mitre
CVSS
9.8 Critical (CVSS 3.1, from the CNA)
CWE-88
Improper Neutralization of Argument Delimiters in a Command ('Argument Injection')
CISA SSVC, exploitation
active
CISA SSVC, automatable
yes
CISA SSVC, technical impact
total

Timeline

  1. The CVE record was published.
  2. CISA added it to its list of exploited vulnerabilities.
  3. The US federal deadline to fix it.
  4. Exploit-DB published an exploit (EDB-ID 52524).

Public exploits

Facts from Metasploit's module list and Exploit-DB's index; we never copy exploit code.

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