CVE-2026-24061 GNU InetUtils Argument Injection

What is CVE-2026-24061?

CVE-2026-24061 is a critical authentication bypass vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 21 Jan 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

Official description

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

Weakness: CWE-88

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-24061?

It affects 2 products.

Products include Debian Debian Linux, Gnu Inetutils.

How do I fix CVE-2026-24061?

Apply the vendor's patch. US federal agencies must fix it by 16 Feb 2026.

Upgrade, and rotate credentials and sessions that may have been exposed. More about Authentication bypass.

Is CVE-2026-24061 being exploited?

Yes. Attackers have exploited CVE-2026-24061 in the wild since at least 26 Jan 2026.

Public exploit code: 1 Metasploit module, 1 Exploit-DB entry and 68 proofs of concept on GitHub.

Other vulnerabilities in Debian Debian Linux

• CVE-2015-3306 ProFTPD Improper Access Control Exploited Critical 10.0
• CVE-2025-49113 RoundCube Webmail Deserialization of Untrusted Data Exploited Critical 9.9
• CVE-2025-39682 Linux Kernel Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions Exploited Critical 9.8
• CVE-2024-9680 Mozilla Firefox Use-After-Free Exploited Critical 9.8
• CVE-2022-30333 RARLAB UnRAR Directory Traversal Exploited Critical 9.8

All Debian Debian Linux vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2026-24061, DLA-4453-1, DSA-6106-1, GHSA-pf97-p8ff-fj35, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-24061, USN-7992-1 and 1 more.