Apktool: Path Traversal to Arbitrary File Write
Summary
Apktool: Path Traversal to Arbitrary File Write
Original description
The description as published by the source.
Apktool is a tool for reverse engineering Android APK files. In versions 3.0.0 and 3.0.1, a path traversal vulnerability in brut/androlib/res/decoder/ResFileDecoder.java allows a maliciously crafted APK to write arbitrary files to the filesystem during standard decoding (apktool d). This is a security regression introduced in commit e10a045 (PR #4041, December 12, 2025), which removed the BrutIO.sanitizePath() call that previously prevented path traversal in resource file output paths. An attacker can embed ../ sequences in the resources.arsc Type String Pool to escape the output directory and write files to arbitrary locations, including ~/.ssh/config, ~/.bashrc, or Windows Startup folders, escalating to RCE. The fix in version 3.0.2 re-introduces BrutIO.sanitizePath() in ResFileDecoder.java before file write operations.
Source: OSV.dev (Open Source Vulnerabilities) NVD GitHub Advisory OSV
Fix status by distribution
Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE
- Ubuntu UBUNTU-CVE-2026-39973 apktool
References
- advisory github.com
- advisory github.com
- advisory nvd.nist.gov
- patch github.com
- patch github.com
- web github.com