H-ISAC TLP White Threat Bulletin Active Exploitations of an 11-Year-Old Critical Telnetd Vulnerability (CVE-2026-24061)

On January 19, 2026, a security researcher, Kyu Neushwaistein (a.k.a. Carlos Cortes Alvarez), reported an 11-year-old critical vulnerability in telnetd, tracked as CVE-2026-24061.

The vulnerability, with a CVSS score of 9.8, is an authentication bypass flaw that allows root access via Telnet. It has been discovered to be actively weaponized by actors like 'rwxrwx'.

Therefore, healthcare providers must disable Telnet (especially if not in use), update to v2.7-2+, or isolate unpatchable equipment via strict network segmentation to prevent any malicious payloads and data theft.

Health-ISAC provides this information to increase situational awareness and encourage organizations to assess their level of risk to this vulnerability.

View the detailed bulletin below.