


Perceptive Security
SOC/SIEM Consultancy

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/ResFileDe…
Published:
20 april 2026 om 22:00:00
Alert date:
21 april 2026 om 07:08:02
Source:
nvd.nist.gov
Mobile & IoT, Security Tools
CVE-2026-39973 affects Apktool versions 3.0.0 and 3.0.1, introducing a path traversal vulnerability in ResFileDecoder.java. The vulnerability allows maliciously crafted APK files to write arbitrary files to the filesystem during decoding operations. This security regression was introduced by removing the BrutIO.sanitizePath() call in commit e10a045. Attackers can embed '../' sequences in the resources.arsc Type String Pool to escape output directories and write to critical system files like ~/.ssh/config, ~/.bashrc, or Windows Startup folders, potentially escalating to remote code execution. The vulnerability has been fixed in version 3.0.2 by re-introducing proper path sanitization.
Technical details
Mitigation steps:
Affected products:
Apktool
Related links:
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-39973
https://github.com/iBotPeaches/Apktool/commit/e10a0450c7afcd9462c0b76bcbff0e7428b92bdd#diff-cd531ebe1014bfd18185bf21585ca5cdb16fbcb07703ebc47949a1b4e4e36bc3
https://github.com/iBotPeaches/Apktool/pull/4041
https://github.com/iBotPeaches/Apktool/releases/tag/v3.0.2
https://github.com/iBotPeaches/Apktool/security/advisories/GHSA-m8mh-x359-vm8m
Related CVE's:
Related threat actors:
IOC's:
This article was created with the assistance of AI technology by Perceptive.
