Vulnerability · Published Feb 20, 2026 · Assigned by GitHub_M
CVE-2026-26064calibre: Path Traversal Vulnerability Enables Arbitrary File Write and Remote Code Execution
Critical 9.3
In plain English
A critical-severity path traversal in calibre from kovidgoyal. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 1.0% (higher than 62% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.
Official 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.
Affected packages & fixed versions
| Ecosystem | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian:12 | calibre | 6.13.0+repack-2+deb12u6 | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-26064 |
| Debian:13 | calibre | 8.5.0+ds-1+deb13u2 | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-26064 |
| Debian:14 | calibre | 9.3.0+ds+~0.10.5-1 | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-26064 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | calibre | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-26064 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | calibre | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-26064 |
| Ubuntu:25.10 | calibre | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-26064 |
| Ubuntu:26.04:LTS | calibre | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-26064 |
| Ubuntu:26.10 | calibre | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-26064 |
Affected products (as reported)
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
| kovidgoyal | calibre | < 9.3.0 |
Weakness: CWE-22 · Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H