From 4db2f19f4caac03c7f4da6363c140bd70df31386 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Erik Auerswald <auerswal@unix-ag.uni-kl.de>
Date: Sun, 15 Feb 2026 15:38:50 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] telnetd: don't allow systemd service credentials

The login(1) implementation of util-linux added support for
systemd service credentials in release 2.40.  This allows to
bypass authentication by specifying a directory name in the
environment variable CREDENTIALS_DIRECTORY.  If this directory
contains a file named 'login.noauth' with the content of 'yes',
login(1) skips authentication.

GNU Inetutils telnetd supports to set arbitrary environment
variables using the 'Environment' and 'New Environment'
Telnet options.  This allows specifying a directory containing
'login.noauth'.  A local user can create such a directory
and file, and, e.g., specify the user name 'root' to escalate
privileges.

This problem was reported by Ron Ben Yizhak in
<https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-inetutils/2026-02/msg00000.html>.

This commit clears CREDENTIALS_DIRECTORY from the environment
before executing login(1) to implement a simple fix that can
be backported easily.

* NEWS.md: Mention fix.
* THANKS: Mention Ron Ben Yizhak.
* telnetd/pty.c: Clear CREDENTIALS_DIRECTORY from the environment
before executing 'login'.

CVE: CVE-2026-28372
Upstream-Status: Backport [https://cgit.git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/inetutils.git/commit/?id=4db2f19f4caac03c7f4da6363c140bd70df31386]
Signed-off-by: Peter Marko <peter.marko@siemens.com>
---
 NEWS          | 5 +++++
 THANKS        | 1 +
 telnetd/pty.c | 8 ++++++++
 3 files changed, 14 insertions(+)

diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 877ca53b..f5172a71 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,5 +1,10 @@
 GNU inetutils NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
 
+** Prevent privilege escalation via telnetd abusing systemd service
+credentials support added to the login(1) implementation of util-linux
+in release 2.40.  Reported by Ron Ben Yizhak in
+<https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-inetutils/2026-02/msg00000.html>.
+
 * Noteworthy changes in release 2.2 (2021-09-01) [stable]
 
 ** ftp
diff --git a/THANKS b/THANKS
index 8d1d3dbb..ef5f6063 100644
--- a/THANKS
+++ b/THANKS
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ In particular:
   NIIBE Yutaka		 (Security fixes & making talk finally work)
   Nathan Neulinger       (tftpd)
   Thomas Bushnell        (sockaddr sin_len field)
+  Ron Ben Yizhak         (reported privilege escalation via telnetd)
 
 Please see version control logs and ChangeLog.? for full credits.
 
diff --git a/telnetd/pty.c b/telnetd/pty.c
index c727e7be..f3518049 100644
--- a/telnetd/pty.c
+++ b/telnetd/pty.c
@@ -132,6 +132,14 @@ start_login (char *host, int autologin, char *name)
   if (!cmd)
     fatal (net, "can't expand login command line");
   argcv_get (cmd, "", &argc, &argv);
+
+  /* util-linux's "login" introduced an authentication bypass method
+   * via environment variable "CREDENTIALS_DIRECTORY" in version 2.40.
+   * Clear it from the environment before executing "login" to prevent
+   * abuse via Telnet.
+   */
+  unsetenv ("CREDENTIALS_DIRECTORY");
+
   execv (argv[0], argv);
   syslog (LOG_ERR, "%s: %m\n", cmd);
   fatalperror (net, cmd);
