Privilege Escalation in GNU inetutils telnetd (<2.7) via systemd credentials
CVE-2026-28372 Published on February 27, 2026

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.

NVD

Vulnerability Analysis

CVE-2026-28372 is exploitable with local system access, and does not require authorization privileges or user interaction. This vulnerability is consided to have a high level of attack complexity. The potential impact of an exploit of this vulnerability is considered to be very high.

Attack Vector:
LOCAL
Attack Complexity:
HIGH
Privileges Required:
NONE
User Interaction:
NONE
Scope:
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact:
HIGH
Integrity Impact:
HIGH
Availability Impact:
HIGH

Weakness Type

Inclusion of Functionality from Untrusted Control Sphere

The software imports, requires, or includes executable functionality (such as a library) from a source that is outside of the intended control sphere.


Products Associated with CVE-2026-28372

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GNU Inetutils
 

Affected Versions

GNU inetutils: