VDB-207573 · CVE-2022-39028 · EUVD-2022-41574

GNU Inetutils up to 2.3 telnetd null pointer dereference

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5.4	$0-$5k	0.00

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability identified as problematic has been detected in GNU Inetutils up to 2.3. This vulnerability affects unknown code of the component telnetd. Performing a manipulation results in null pointer dereference. This vulnerability was named CVE-2022-39028. There is no available exploit. Applying a patch is the recommended action to fix this issue.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in GNU Inetutils up to 2.3. It has been classified as problematic. This affects some unknown functionality of the component telnetd. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a null pointer dereference vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-476. A NULL pointer dereference occurs when the application dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid, but is NULL, typically causing a crash or exit. This is going to have an impact on availability. The summary by CVE is:

telnetd in GNU Inetutils through 2.3, MIT krb5-appl through 1.0.3, and derivative works has a NULL pointer dereference via 0xff 0xf7 or 0xff 0xf8. In a typical installation, the telnetd application would crash but the telnet service would remain available through inetd. However, if the telnetd application has many crashes within a short time interval, the telnet service would become unavailable after inetd logs a "telnet/tcp server failing (looping), service terminated" error. NOTE: MIT krb5-appl is not supported upstream but is shipped by a few Linux distributions. The affected code was removed from the supported MIT Kerberos 5 (aka krb5) product many years ago, at version 1.8.

The weakness was presented 08/30/2022. The advisory is shared at pierrekim.github.io. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2022-39028 since 08/30/2022. Neither technical details nor an exploit are publicly available.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 266306 (Ubuntu 14.04 LTS / 16.04 LTS / 18.04 LTS / 20.04 LTS : Inetutils vulnerabilities (USN-7781-1)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Applying a patch is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at git.hadrons.org.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at Tenable (266306), EUVD (EUVD-2022-41574) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-1439). If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

Affected

SUSE Linux
Dell Secure Connect Gateway

Productinfo

Vendor

Name

Inetutils

Version

License

open-source

Website

Vendor: https://www.gnu.org/

CPE 2.3info

CPE 2.2info

CVSSv4info

VulDB Vector: 🔍
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv3info

VulDB Meta Base Score: 5.5
VulDB Meta Temp Score: 5.4

VulDB Base Score: 3.5
VulDB Temp Score: 3.4
VulDB Vector: 🔍
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

NVD Base Score: 7.5
NVD Vector: 🔍

CVSSv2info

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VulDB Base Score: 🔍
VulDB Temp Score: 🔍
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

Exploitinginfo

Class: Null pointer dereference
CWE: CWE-476 / CWE-404
CAPEC: 🔍
ATT&CK: 🔍

Physical: No
Local: No
Remote: Yes

Availability: 🔍
Status: Not defined

EPSS Score: 🔍
EPSS Percentile: 🔍

Price Prediction: 🔍
Current Price Estimation: 🔍

0-Day	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
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Nessus ID: 266306
Nessus Name: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS / 16.04 LTS / 18.04 LTS / 20.04 LTS : Inetutils vulnerabilities (USN-7781-1)

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Interest: 🔍
Active Actors: 🔍
Active APT Groups: 🔍

Countermeasuresinfo

Recommended: Patch
Status: 🔍

0-Day Time: 🔍

Patch: git.hadrons.org

Timelineinfo

08/30/2022 🔍
08/30/2022 +0 days 🔍
08/30/2022 +0 days 🔍
06/25/2026 +1395 days 🔍

Sourcesinfo

Vendor: gnu.org

Advisory: pierrekim.github.io
Status: Confirmed

CVE: CVE-2022-39028 (🔍)
GCVE (CVE): GCVE-0-2022-39028
GCVE (VulDB): GCVE-100-207573
EUVD: 🔍
CERT Bund: WID-SEC-2025-1439 - Dell Secure Connect Gateway: Mehrere Schwachstellen ermöglichen nicht spezifizierten Angriff

Entryinfo

Created: 08/30/2022 13:25
Updated: 06/25/2026 10:12
Changes: 08/30/2022 13:25 (40), 10/10/2022 08:32 (11), 10/01/2025 13:57 (16), 01/20/2026 22:43 (7), 06/25/2026 10:12 (1)
Complete: 🔍
Cache ID: 216::103

If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.