Path traversal in Flatpak - CVE-2026-97023
Published: September 28, 2026
Vulnerability identifier: #VU152568
CSH Severity: Medium
CVSS v4: 6.8 [CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:N/VI:L/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N]
CVE-ID: CVE-2026-97023
CWE-ID: CWE-22
Exploitation vector: Remote access
Exploit availability:
No public exploit available
Vulnerability details
The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to delete arbitrary files outside the deployment directory.
The vulnerability exists due to path traversal in the export/bin handling in deploy directories when upgrading a malicious Flatpak app. A remote attacker can supply a malicious Flatpak app with crafted paths to delete arbitrary files outside the deployment directory.
User interaction is required to upgrade the malicious app. For system-wide installations, file deletion is performed as root.
Affected software
Flatpak
How to mitigate CVE-2026-97023
Install security update from vendor's website.
Flatpak - update to 1.18.4