CVE-2022-39028
CVSS v3
7.5
HIGH
EPSS Score
2.1 %
exploit probability, as of 2026-09-25
CISA KEV
No
known exploited
Exploitation
—
SSVC status
Description
telnetd in GNU Inetutils through 2.3, MIT krb5-appl through 1.0.3, and derivative works has a NULL pointer dereference via 0xff 0xf7 or 0xff 0xf8. In a typical installation, the telnetd application would crash but the telnet service would remain available through inetd. However, if the telnetd application has many crashes within a short time interval, the telnet service would become unavailable after inetd logs a "telnet/tcp server failing (looping), service terminated" error. NOTE: MIT krb5-appl is not supported upstream but is shipped by a few Linux distributions. The affected code was removed from the supported MIT Kerberos 5 (aka krb5) product many years ago, at version 1.8.
Technical details
- Published
- 2022-08-30
Frequently asked questions
What is CVE-2022-39028?
telnetd in GNU Inetutils through 2.3, MIT krb5-appl through 1.0.3, and derivative works has a NULL pointer dereference via 0xff 0xf7 or 0xff 0xf8. In a typical installation, the telnetd application would crash but the telnet service would remain available through inetd. However, if the telnetd application has many crashes within a short time interval, the telnet service would become unavailable after inetd logs a "telnet/tcp server failing (looping), service terminated" error. NOTE: MIT krb5-appl is not supported upstream but is shipped by a few Linux distributions. The affected code was removed from the supported MIT Kerberos 5 (aka krb5) product many years ago, at version 1.8.
Is CVE-2022-39028 actively exploited?
Active exploitation of CVE-2022-39028 has not been confirmed. Its EPSS score was 2.1% on 2026-09-25, the estimated probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
What is the CVSS score for CVE-2022-39028?
CVE-2022-39028 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.5 (HIGH severity).
Is CVE-2022-39028 affecting your environment?
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