CVE-2026-118485 Affecting axel package, versions *


Severity

Recommended
low

Based on default assessment until relevant scores are available.

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  • Snyk IDSNYK-DEBIAN14-AXEL-21779760
  • published29 Oct 2026
  • disclosed28 Oct 2026

Introduced: 28 Oct 2026

NewCVE-2026-118485  (opens in a new tab)

How to fix?

There is no fixed version for Debian:14 axel.

NVD Description

Note: Versions mentioned in the description apply only to the upstream axel package and not the axel package as distributed by Debian. See How to fix? for Debian:14 relevant fixed versions and status.

Axel Download Accelerator 2.17.14 and earlier performs URL percent-decoding (http_decode()) on the output filename after the URL has been parsed and the filename component extracted. This allows an attacker to embed %2e%2e%2f (URL-encoded ../) sequences in the URL path. These sequences survive the URL parser intact (they contain no literal / characters) but are decoded into directory traversal sequences before the output file is opened for writing. As a result, a crafted URL can cause axel to write downloaded content to arbitrary filesystem paths relative to the current working directory.