Vulnerability report

Exploited in the wild Confirmed confidence In CISA KEV

CVE-2026-24061

Inetutils Authentication Bypass

GNU / Inetutils · 1.9.3 to <= 2.7

Watch CVE-2026-24061 Browse KEV feed
Severity
CVSS 9.8 · Critical
Confidence
Confirmed
Exploit status
Exploited in the wild
EPSS
99.0%
First observed
—
Last observed
—

Decision summary

What security teams need to know first

Direct answers before the deeper technical record.

What it is

CVE-2026-24061 is an unauthenticated vulnerability affecting GNU Inetutils. telnetd in GNU Inetutils through 2.7 allows remote authentication bypass via a "-f root" value for the USER environment variable.

Is it exploited?

Yes. Previdian tracks this CVE as a known exploited vulnerability. Confidence is confirmed. Listed in CISA KEV. Also confirmed by third-party sources.

Who is affected?

GNU / Inetutils 1.9.3 to <= 2.7.

What should we do?

Prioritize remediation. Validate affected assets and apply vendor fixes on an accelerated timeline.

Overview

Inetutils Authentication Bypass

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

GNU Affected
Inetutils
Through 2.7
Published
21 Jan 2026
Exploitation Reported
01 Jun 2026
Attack vector
Remote
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None

Tags

cisa

CVE References

Exploitation evidence

Why Previdian marks this CVE as exploited

Third-party attestation and first-party sensor observation are shown separately so teams can judge the evidence chain.

Exploited in the wild

CVE

Recorded 01 Jun 2026

A trusted third party reported exploitation.

Proof of concept available

GitHub

Recorded 28 Aug 2026

Public scanner or PoC coverage increases practical exploitability.

Known exploited vulnerability sources

Per-source evidence links for KEV attestations are available through the Previdian Pro API.

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Source Added
CVE First 2026-06-01 10:49 UTC
CISA 2026-06-02 14:03 UTC

Detection

Operational artifacts and observed signals

Make the evidence actionable in scanner, SOC, and edge-control workflows.

Observed signals

Request targets
User-Agents
Callback hosts
0
0
0

Request targets and User-Agents available in Pro. Callback host details available in Enterprise.

Scanner coverage

No scanner integrations recorded yet.

Virtual patch status

No Previdian virtual patch is currently available. Future rules ship for ModSecurity, Cloudflare, and AWS WAF.

Learn about virtual patches →

No detection artifacts or sensor request patterns are available for this CVE yet.

Check back as sensor telemetry and scanner integrations are updated.

Risk and context

Severity, weaknesses, and research context

CVSS v3.1

9.8 Critical

Potential damage if exploited. Separate from whether attackers are using it.

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS

99.0%

Estimated chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Previdian's warning comes from evidence, not this score.

Weaknesses

Improper Neutralization of Argument Delimiters in a Command ('Argument Injection') CWE-88

Potential Proof of Concepts

These PoCs are unverified and could contain malware. Use at your own risk.

Yoksulcvt/CVE-2026-24061-Telnet-Authentication-Bypass

github · Created 2026-10-07 18:11:32 UTC · 0 stars · AI assessment 85%

Telnet 2.7 Authentication Bypass and Privilege Escalation | Telnet 2.7 Kimlik doğrulama Zafiyeti Ve Yetki Yükseltme Saldırısı

Ish3ng0m4/CVE-2026-24061-Telnetd

github · Created 2026-09-01 20:26:43 UTC · 0 stars · AI assessment 90%

CVE-2026-24061 GNU Inetutils Telnetd Authentication Bypass

iLokaas/CVE-2026-24061-payload

github · Created 2026-08-28 20:14:45 UTC · 0 stars · AI assessment 90%

A PoC exploit for CVE-2026-24061 - GNU InetUtils telnetd Argument Injection Authentication Bypass

CVE Record exploit — openwall.com

cve · Created Unknown

Timeline

From disclosure to observed exploitation

  1. 20:14 UTC

    Public PoC available

    Public proof-of-concept code published

  2. 14:03 UTC

    Added to CISA KEV

    Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

  3. 10:49 UTC

    Added to Previdian KEV Feed

    High-confidence, third-party attested exploitation

  4. 06:42 UTC

    CVE published

    Vulnerability disclosed publicly

  5. 06:42 UTC

    CVE ID reserved

    Identifier reserved by the CNA

Pro API

Automate this intelligence

Confidence, exploit status, sensor telemetry, PoCs, scanner integrations, mentions, and tags are available programmatically for VM, SOC, and CTI workflows.

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  • Evidence confidence and provenance
  • First-party sensor telemetry
  • PoC and scanner references
  • Affected versions and enrichment
  • Automation-ready JSON delivery

GET /api/v2/pro/kevs/CVE-2026-24061

Free JSON includes basic KEV fields 
{
  "cve_id": "CVE-2026-24061",
  "confidence": "Confirmed",
  "cvss_score": 9.8,
  "cvss_estimated": false,
  "epss_score": 0.98984,
  "exploit_status": {
    "exploited_in_the_wild": true,
    "active_exploitation_observed": false
  },
  "sensor_telemetry": { "attempts": 0, "sensors": 0 }
}