Medium severity · published Apr 9, 2026
CVE-2026-39977
flatpak-builder has a path traversal leading to arbitrary file read on host when installing licence files
6.3
CVSS
0.3%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
flatpak-builder is a tool to build flatpaks from source. From 1.4.5 to before 1.4.8, the license-files manifest key takes an array of paths to user defined licence files relative to the source directory of the module. The paths from that array are resolved using g_file_resolve_relative_path() and validated to stay inside the source directory using two checks - g_file_get_relative_path() which does not resolve symlinks and g_file_query_file_type() with G_FILE_QUERY_INFO_NOFOLLOW_SYMLINKS which only applies to the final path component. The copy operation runs on host. This can be exploited by using a crafted manifest and/or source to read arbitrary files from the host and capture them into the build output. This vulnerability is fixed in 1.4.8.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
None
Availability
None
Scope
Changed
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.3% · higher than 21% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
FL
flatpak-builder · flatpak
>= 1.4.5, < 1.4.8 · source: vendor, NVD
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-39977
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-39977
Exploit
https://github.com/flatpak/flatpak-builder/security/advisories/GHSA-6gm9-3g7m-3965
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