CVE-2026-78254

NameCVE-2026-78254
DescriptionThe ftp and scp tasks of Apache Ant can download files from a remote server. A malicious server can provide relative paths that allow it to write outside of the dedicated target directory for the download, making it possible to overwrite files of the attacker's choice using the permissions of the user running Ant in versions prior to Ant 1.10.18. In order to exploit this vulnerability, the server would either have to be malicious or be subject to a machine-in-the-middle attack. Additionally in the case of scp or the ftp task using ftps the server must pass the server identity checks performed by the tasks. For ftp tasks not using ftps a malicious server could act as a machine-in-the-middle to provide malicious files. Starting with Ant 1.10.18 both tasks will prevent writing outside of the destination directory by default. An option is available to disable this behavior in the unlikely case that the old behavior is required by existing build files. Mitigations: Users of scp and ftp (when using ftps) in any version of Ant should not bypass server identity checks. Users of ftp not using ftps should switch to ftps where possible. All users are recommended to upgrade to Apache Ant 1.10.18, which fixes this issue.
SourceCVE (at NVD; CERT, ENISA, LWN, oss-sec, fulldisc, Debian ELTS, Red Hat, Ubuntu, Gentoo, SUSE bugzilla/CVE, GitHub advisories/code/issues, web search, more)
Debian Bugs1147425

Vulnerable and fixed packages

The table below lists information on source packages.

Source PackageReleaseVersionStatus
ant (PTS)bookworm1.10.13-1vulnerable
trixie1.10.15-1vulnerable
forky, sid1.10.18-1fixed

The information below is based on the following data on fixed versions.

PackageTypeReleaseFixed VersionUrgencyOriginDebian Bugs
antsource(unstable)1.10.18-11147425

Notes

[trixie] - ant <no-dsa> (Minor issue)
[bookworm] - ant <postponed> (Minor issue, need to compromise a server trusted in Ant-based builds)
https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/09/06/2
https://github.com/apache/ant/commit/07ee9c418e3bd3e7d0287fc9aaba3011e88f0dc2 (ANT_1.10.18_RC1)
https://github.com/apache/ant/commit/9252566cab812c59a5695679ba11f497e85aabb0 (ANT_1.10.18_RC1)
https://github.com/apache/ant/commit/3807d672ea18d9f8dafd5eb9b2fe1de05f664539 (ANT_1.10.18_RC1)

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