Is there a public exploit for CVE-2026-118485?

No public exploit for CVE-2026-118485 was found in Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei templates or public proof-of-concept repositories. That is an absence of evidence rather than proof that none exists.

How severe is CVE-2026-118485?

CVE-2026-118485 scores CVSS 7 (v4.0), rated high.

7.0 High

Axel Download Accelerator 2.17.14 and earlier performs URL percent-decoding (httpdecode()) on the output filename after the URL has been…

CVE-2026-118485

Axel Download Accelerator 2.17.14 and earlier performs URL percent-decoding (httpdecode()) 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.

Assessment

CVSS: 7 (v4.0)
Severity: High
Known exploited: Not listed in CISA KEV
Exploit availability: Nothing found in Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei or public PoC repositories
Published: 28 October 2026
Last updated: 28 October 2026
Weakness: CWE-24
Assigner: 6064c9f1-42e5-4cc5-a67a-1636d7a9d3fd

CVSS vectorCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:N/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X

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