CVE-2026-42372D-Link DIR-605L A1 Hardcoded Telnet Backdoor Credentials
- 8.8HighCVSS base score
- 0.30%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 77% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- YesPublic exploitsa reference or SSVC says so
Description
D-Link DIR-605L Hardware Revision A1 (End-of-Life, EOL) contains a hardcoded telnet backdoor. The device starts a telnet daemon at boot via /bin/telnetd.sh with the username "Alphanetworks" and the static password "wrgn35_dlwbr_dir605l" read from /etc/alpha_config/image_sign. The custom telnetd binary accepts a -u user:password flag, and the custom login binary uses strcmp() to validate credentials. Successful authentication grants an unauthenticated attacker on the local network a root shell with full administrative control. The device has reached End-of-Life (EOL) and will not receive patches.
Public exploit
An exploit or proof of concept is public: anyone can try it against an unpatched system. A reference of the record is tagged as an exploit. CISA's SSVC rates its exploitation: a proof of concept is public.
Show the exploits1
References tagged exploit1 reference
Timeline
ID reserved
By securin
- 7 days later
· 7 days later
Published
- 1 day later
· 1 day 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| securinCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | High8.8 | CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
| NVDNVD · Analyzed | 3.1 | High8.8 | CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.30% · top 77% of all CVEs (14 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 8.8.
Affected products
- affected A1
What to do
Workaround: This product is End-of-Life and will NOT receive patches. Users should replace the device. Temporary: connect via backdoor and run "killall telnetd" and "iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 23 -j DROP" (lost on reboot).
References
References1
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-2026-27021 (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-2026-42372)Record last updated .