# Install telnet with Homebrew

User interface to the TELNET protocol. Version 308 via Homebrew; verified from local package data.

## Install

```sh
sudo av install brew:telnet
```

Additional install commands:

### macOS

- Homebrew (100%):

```sh
brew install telnet
```

  Evidence: provider-native install command

## Package facts

- **Package key:** brew:telnet
- **Package manager:** Homebrew
- **Version:** 308
- **Source summary:** User interface to the TELNET protocol
- **Homepage:** <https://opensource.apple.com/>
- **Repository:** <https://github.com/apple-oss-distributions/remote_cmds>
- **Generated:** 2026-08-03T00:40:33+00:00

## Executables

- telnet (alias)

## Install behavior

- Bottle: not available

## Freshness

- Page generated: 2026-08-03
- Package-manager version: 308
## Project history and usage

telnet is the classic command-line user interface to the TELNET protocol. The protocol was standardized for the ARPA Internet in RFC 854 in May 1983 as a general bidirectional byte-oriented terminal communications facility.

### Project history

The BSD-derived Apple manpage carries University of California copyright dates beginning in 1983 and describes `telnet` as a user interface to the TELNET protocol. This places the packaged client in the long Unix lineage of TCP/IP remote-login tools distributed with BSD systems and later carried by operating-system vendors.

RFC 854 defines the protocol around a Network Virtual Terminal and negotiated options, with the goal of connecting terminal devices and terminal-oriented processes across heterogeneous hosts. The companion RFC 855 documents how TELNET options were to be assigned and specified.

### Adoption history

TELNET was once a standard remote-login mechanism on Internet and Unix systems, but its cleartext nature caused SSH to replace it for administration. The client persisted in package repositories because it remained useful for protocol debugging, legacy devices, embedded systems, MUDs, BBS-style services, and quick TCP service inspection.

Homebrew's package exists because modern macOS no longer treats telnet as a default userland tool, while Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora/DNF, openSUSE/Zypper, Chocolatey, and Scoop coverage reflects ongoing cross-platform demand for the small diagnostic client.

### How it is used

The manpage describes invoking `telnet` with a host and optional port, or without a host to enter an interactive `telnet>` command mode. Options cover IPv4/IPv6 selection, trace files, source address selection, escape characters, `.telnetrc` handling, rlogin-like behavior, Kerberos-related authentication controls, binary mode, and optional encryption support where compiled in.

In package-manager culture, `telnet host port` became shorthand for testing whether a TCP service accepts connections, even when the remote service is not a TELNET server. That usage survives because the client is tiny, scriptable enough for manual diagnostics, and familiar across Unix-like systems.

### Why package nerds care

telnet is historically significant because it is both a protocol tool and a fossil of early Internet userland. Package nerds care about it as a removed-default utility that keeps reappearing in bootstrap scripts, debugging recipes, and compatibility packages despite being inappropriate for secure login.

Its package metadata also illustrates how old network clients move from base operating systems into optional package-manager formulae as security expectations and default installs change.

### Timeline

- 1983: RFC 854 standardized TELNET for the ARPA Internet.
- 1983: RFC 855 standardized TELNET option specification procedures.
- 1983-1994: BSD telnet manpage lineage records University of California copyrights and Berkeley manual revisions.
- 2000: Apple-distributed telnet manpage date reflects later operating-system packaging of the BSD-derived client.

### Related projects

- telnetd is the companion server for the same protocol.
- ssh replaced TELNET for secure remote login, while tools such as nc, socat, curl, and openssl s_client cover many modern diagnostic use cases.

### Sources

- <https://github.com/apple-oss-distributions/remote_cmds/blob/main/telnet/telnet.1>
- <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc854.txt>
- <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc855.txt>
- source_facts.package-manager


## Security Notes

narrow executable package without higher-risk signals.

- **Geiger risk:** green / low
- narrow executable package without higher-risk signals


## Configuration and credential file locations

These source-backed paths show where this package keeps local settings or durable credentials. Automic Vault can use them as review targets for secret scanning, migration, and command approval.


## Configuration files

- Unix: ~/.telnetrc

## Combined YAML source

View the package source record on GitHub. [combined/telnet.yml](https://github.com/automic-vault/db/blob/main/combined/telnet.yml)


## Sources

- Nucleus package database
- Geiger risk classifier
- curated configuration and credential file locations
- curated package history
- pkgdb category and tag curation