CVE-2026-28372telnetd in GNU inetutils through 2.7 allows privilege escalation that can be exploited by abusing systemd service credentials support…
- 7.4HighCVSS base score
- 0.41%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 64% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- YesPublic exploitsa reference or SSVC says so
Description
telnetd in GNU inetutils through 2.7 allows privilege escalation that can be exploited by abusing systemd service credentials support added to the login(1) implementation of util-linux in release 2.40. This is related to client control over the CREDENTIALS_DIRECTORY environment variable, and requires an unprivileged local user to create a login.noauth file.
Public exploit
An exploit or proof of concept is public: anyone can try it against an unpatched system. CISA's SSVC rates its exploitation: a proof of concept is public.
Timeline
ID reserved
By mitre
Published
- 8 days later
· 8 days later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| mitreCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | High7.4 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.1 | High7.8 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.41% · top 64% of all CVEs (13 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: poc · Automatable: no · Technical impact: total
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 7.4.
Affected products
References
References9
- https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-inetutils/2026-02/msg00000.html (opens in a new tab)
- https://git.hadrons.org/cgit/debian/pkgs/inetutils.git/commit/?id=3953943d8296310485f98963883a798545ab9a6c (opens in a new tab)
- https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-inetutils/2026-02/msg00012.html (opens in a new tab)
- https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/02/24/1 (opens in a new tab)
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/02/27/3 (opens in a new tab)
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/03/06/2 (opens in a new tab)
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/03/06/3 (opens in a new tab)
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/03/07/1 (opens in a new tab)
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/03/07/2 (opens in a new tab)
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2026-9000 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2026-28372)Record last updated .