GNU InetUtils Critical Vulnerability - 20260130001

Overview

A critical vulnerability has been discovered in telnetd in GNU Inetutils potentially allowing remote authentication bypass via a "-f root" value for the USER environment variable.

What is vulnerable?

Product(s) Affected	Version(s)	CVE	CVSS	Severity
telnetd in GNU Inetutils	All versions prior to and including 2.7	CVE-2026-24061	9.8	Critical

What has been observed?

CISA added this vulnerability in their Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. The WA SOC has not received any reports of exploitation of this vulnerability on Western Australian Government networks at the time of writing.

Recommendation

The WASOC recommends administrators apply the solutions as per vendor instructions to all affected devices within expected timeframes (refer Patch Management):

• GNU: https://www.gnu.org/software/inetutils/

Additional Resources

• CISA: https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2026-24061
• OpenWall: https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/01/20/2