High severity · published Feb 20, 2026
CVE-2026-26064
calibre: Path Traversal Vulnerability Enables Arbitrary File Write and Remote Code Execution
8.8
CVSS
1%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
calibre is a cross-platform e-book manager for viewing, converting, editing, and cataloging e-books. Versions 9.2.1 and below contain a Path Traversal vulnerability that allows arbitrary file writes anywhere the user has write permissions. On Windows, this leads to Remote Code Execution by writing a payload to the Startup folder, which executes on next login. Function extract_pictures only checks startswith('Pictures'), and does not sanitize '..' sequences. calibre's own ZipFile.extractall() in utils/zipfile.py does sanitize '..' via _get_targetpath(), but extract_pictures() bypasses this by using manual zf.read() + open(). This issue has been fixed in version 9.3.0.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)1.0% · higher than 62% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
CA
calibre · kovidgoyal
< 9.3.0 · source: vendor, NVD
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-26064
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-26064
Patch
https://github.com/kovidgoyal/calibre/commit/e1b5f9b45a5e8fa96c136963ad9a1d35e6adac62
Exploit
https://github.com/kovidgoyal/calibre/security/advisories/GHSA-72ch-3hqc-pgmp
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