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Public proof of conceptFix available

CVE-2026-28372

A public proof of concept exists; no exploitation attested.

  • Published2026-02-27
  • WeaknessCWE-829

Am I affected?

With a domain, we read the version its public headers and pages expose. A distribution build can carry the fix under an older number.

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.

Timeline

dates in UTC
  1. 2026-02-2706:18CVE publishedNVD

Versions per branch

NVD
Gnu inetutils
BranchAffectedFixed in
2.7≤ 2.7no fix published

as publishedRanges as NVD and OSV publish them; a distribution’s build can be fixed under an older number.

Products declared by the CNA1 product

As mitre, the CNA that assigned this CVE, declared them in the CVE record; versions as written.

  • GNU inetutilsother versions: unknown
    Affected
    • ≤ 2.7no fix statedcustom

Source: the CNA record (CVE Program), © The MITRE Corporation,CVE Terms of UseCVE recordupdated 2026-02-27

Distribution builds and vendor advisories

Packages from OSV.dev and products from the vendors' CSAF advisories.

version not verifiedVersions not verified: read as OSV.dev and the vendors publish them, not checked against each vendor's release list.

Packages

  • inetutilsUbuntu:Pro:22.04:LTSall versions · fixed in 2:2.2-2ubuntu0.2+esm1
  • inetutilsUbuntu:Pro:20.04:LTSall versions · fixed in 2:1.9.4-11ubuntu0.2+esm4
  • inetutilsUbuntu:Pro:18.04:LTSall versions · fixed in 2:1.9.4-3ubuntu0.1+esm5
  • inetutilsUbuntu:Pro:16.04:LTSall versions · fixed in 2:1.9.4-1ubuntu0.1~esm6
  • inetutilsUbuntu:Pro:14.04:LTSall versions · fixed in 2:1.9.2-1ubuntu0.1~esm4
  • inetutilsUbuntu:26.04:LTSall versions · fixed in 2:2.7-2ubuntu1.1
  • inetutilsUbuntu:25.10all versions · fixed in 2:2.6-1ubuntu3.2
  • inetutilsUbuntu:24.04:LTSall versions · fixed in 2:2.5-3ubuntu4.2

4 more package ranges on OSV.dev

Full record on NVD

Fix

Advisories and patches

Detection

read 2026-11-01 01:02 UTC
Nuclei template
none so far
ProjectDiscovery
Exploit-DB
no entry
Exploit-DB
Proof of concept
Metasploit modules
none listed
Metasploit Framework

Sources

Identifiers

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Published
2026-02-27
Last Modified
2026-06-17
NVD status
Modified
GitHub Advisory
GHSA-j682-47rx-fxrp

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-28372?

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.

Is CVE-2026-28372 actively exploited?

A proof-of-concept exploit exists for CVE-2026-28372, but active exploitation has not been confirmed at this time.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2026-28372?

CVE-2026-28372 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.8 (HIGH severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

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