Actively exploited · Published Jan 21, 2026 · Assigned by mitre
CVE-2026-24061
Critical 9.8 Exploited
In plain English
A critical-severity argument injection in Inetutils from GNU. Attackers are actively exploiting it in the wild (listed by CISA on January 26, 2026). The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 99.0% (higher than 99.9% of all known vulnerabilities). Ready-made attack tooling exists: Metasploit, public proof-of-concept code. Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.
CISA guidance
Apply mitigations per vendor instructions, follow applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.
Federal agencies must remediate by Feb 16, 2026.
Official description
telnetd in GNU Inetutils through 2.7 allows remote authentication bypass via a "-f root" value for the USER environment variable.
Affected packages & fixed versions
| Ecosystem | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alpine:v3.24 | inetutils-telnet | 2.8-r0 | ALPINE-CVE-2026-24061 |
| Debian:12 | inetutils | 2:2.4-2+deb12u2 | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-24061 |
| Debian:12 | inetutils | 2:2.4-2+deb12u2 | DSA-6106-1 |
| Debian:13 | inetutils | 2:2.6-3+deb13u1 | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-24061 |
| Debian:13 | inetutils | 2:2.6-3+deb13u1 | DSA-6106-1 |
| Debian:14 | inetutils | 2:2.7-2 | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-24061 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | inetutils | 2:2.2-2ubuntu0.2 | USN-7992-1 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | inetutils | 2:2.2-2ubuntu0.2 | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-24061 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | inetutils | 2:2.5-3ubuntu4.1 | USN-7992-1 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | inetutils | 2:2.5-3ubuntu4.1 | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-24061 |
| Ubuntu:25.10 | inetutils | 2:2.6-1ubuntu3.1 | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-24061 |
| Ubuntu:25.10 | inetutils | 2:2.6-1ubuntu3.1 | USN-7992-1 |
Affected products (as reported)
Weakness: CWE-88 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
References
- https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/01/20/2
- https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/01/20/8
- https://www.gnu.org/software/inetutils/
- https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-inetutils/2026-01/msg00004.html
- https://codeberg.org/inetutils/inetutils/commit/fd702c02497b2f398e739e3119bed0b23dd7aa7b
- https://codeberg.org/inetutils/inetutils/commit/ccba9f748aa8d50a38d7748e2e60362edd6a32cc
- https://www.vicarius.io/vsociety/posts/cve-2026-24061-detection-script-remote-authentication-bypass-in-gnu-inetutils-package
- https://www.vicarius.io/vsociety/posts/cve-2026-24061-mitigation-script-remote-authentication-bypass-in-gnu-inetutils-package
- https://redteam.ae/blog/cve-2026-24061-inetutils-telnetd-root-bypass
- https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/01/20/2#:~:text=root@...a%3A~%20USER=' exploit
- https://www.labs.greynoise.io/grimoire/2026-01-22-f-around-and-find-out-18-hours-of-unsolicited-houseguests/index.html third-party-advisory
- https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2026-24061 government-resource
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/01/22/1
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2026/01/msg00025.html