diff --git a/attic/archive.py b/attic/archive.py
index d001d4e66..4e8842915 100644
--- a/attic/archive.py
+++ b/attic/archive.py
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
 from . import xattr
 from .chunker import chunkify
 from .helpers import uid2user, user2uid, gid2group, group2gid, \
-    Statistics, decode_dict, st_mtime_ns
+    Statistics, decode_dict, st_mtime_ns, make_path_safe
 
 ITEMS_BUFFER = 1024 * 1024
 CHUNK_MIN = 1024
@@ -223,7 +223,8 @@ def add(id):
 
     def extract_item(self, item, restore_attrs=True, peek=None):
         dest = self.cwd
-        assert item[b'path'][:1] not in ('/', '\\', ':')
+        if item[b'path'].startswith('/') or item[b'path'].startswith('..'):
+            raise Exception('Path should be relative and local')
         path = os.path.join(dest, item[b'path'])
         # Attempt to remove existing files, ignore errors on failure
         try:
@@ -355,23 +356,23 @@ def stat_attrs(self, st, path):
         return item
 
     def process_item(self, path, st):
-        item = {b'path': path.lstrip('/\\:')}
+        item = {b'path': make_path_safe(path)}
         item.update(self.stat_attrs(st, path))
         self.add_item(item)
 
     def process_dev(self, path, st):
-        item = {b'path': path.lstrip('/\\:'), b'rdev': st.st_rdev}
+        item = {b'path': make_path_safe(path), b'rdev': st.st_rdev}
         item.update(self.stat_attrs(st, path))
         self.add_item(item)
 
     def process_symlink(self, path, st):
         source = os.readlink(path)
-        item = {b'path': path.lstrip('/\\:'), b'source': source}
+        item = {b'path': make_path_safe(path), b'source': source}
         item.update(self.stat_attrs(st, path))
         self.add_item(item)
 
     def process_file(self, path, st, cache):
-        safe_path = path.lstrip('/\\:')
+        safe_path = make_path_safe(path)
         # Is it a hard link?
         if st.st_nlink > 1:
             source = self.hard_links.get((st.st_ino, st.st_dev))
diff --git a/attic/archiver.py b/attic/archiver.py
index cc8739b0e..a0ce2c40f 100644
--- a/attic/archiver.py
+++ b/attic/archiver.py
@@ -91,6 +91,7 @@ def do_create(self, args):
             except IOError:
                 pass
         for path in args.paths:
+            path = os.path.normpath(path)
             if args.dontcross:
                 try:
                     restrict_dev = os.lstat(path).st_dev
diff --git a/attic/helpers.py b/attic/helpers.py
index 23358f5ad..b5241eb4b 100644
--- a/attic/helpers.py
+++ b/attic/helpers.py
@@ -362,6 +362,15 @@ def remove_surrogates(s, errors='replace'):
     return s.encode('utf-8', errors).decode('utf-8')
 
 
+_safe_re = re.compile('^((..)?/+)+')
+
+
+def make_path_safe(path):
+    """Make path safe by making it relative and local
+    """
+    return _safe_re.sub('', path) or '.'
+
+
 def daemonize():
     """Detach process from controlling terminal and run in background
     """
diff --git a/attic/testsuite/__init__.py b/attic/testsuite/__init__.py
index 74e0c9c8a..9dfb27d38 100644
--- a/attic/testsuite/__init__.py
+++ b/attic/testsuite/__init__.py
@@ -32,6 +32,8 @@
 class AtticTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
     """
     """
+    assert_in = unittest.TestCase.assertIn
+    assert_not_in = unittest.TestCase.assertNotIn
     assert_equal = unittest.TestCase.assertEqual
     assert_not_equal = unittest.TestCase.assertNotEqual
     assert_raises = unittest.TestCase.assertRaises
diff --git a/attic/testsuite/archiver.py b/attic/testsuite/archiver.py
index 56d45277a..ec3d5857c 100644
--- a/attic/testsuite/archiver.py
+++ b/attic/testsuite/archiver.py
@@ -157,6 +157,15 @@ def test_extract_include_exclude(self):
             self.attic('extract', '--exclude=input/file2', self.repository_location + '::test')
         self.assert_equal(sorted(os.listdir('output/input')), ['file1', 'file3'])
 
+    def test_path_normalization(self):
+        self.attic('init', self.repository_location)
+        self.create_regual_file('dir1/dir2/file', size=1024 * 80)
+        with changedir('input/dir1/dir2'):
+            self.attic('create', self.repository_location + '::test', '../../../input/dir1/../dir1/dir2/..')
+        output = self.attic('list', self.repository_location + '::test')
+        self.assert_not_in('..', output)
+        self.assert_in(' input/dir1/dir2/file', output)
+
     def test_overwrite(self):
         self.create_regual_file('file1', size=1024 * 80)
         self.create_regual_file('dir2/file2', size=1024 * 80)
diff --git a/attic/testsuite/helpers.py b/attic/testsuite/helpers.py
index 61c56c6d3..892eb8e13 100644
--- a/attic/testsuite/helpers.py
+++ b/attic/testsuite/helpers.py
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 from datetime import datetime
-from attic.helpers import Location, format_timedelta, IncludePattern, ExcludePattern
+from attic.helpers import Location, format_timedelta, IncludePattern, ExcludePattern, make_path_safe
 from attic.testsuite import AtticTestCase
 
 
@@ -54,3 +54,15 @@ def test(self):
         self.assert_equal(ExcludePattern('/tmp').match('/tmp'), True)
         self.assert_equal(ExcludePattern('/tmp').match('/tmp/foo'), True)
         self.assert_equal(ExcludePattern('/tmp').match('/tmofoo'), False)
+
+
+class MakePathSafeTestCase(AtticTestCase):
+
+    def test(self):
+        self.assert_equal(make_path_safe('/foo/bar'), 'foo/bar')
+        self.assert_equal(make_path_safe('/foo/bar'), 'foo/bar')
+        self.assert_equal(make_path_safe('../foo/bar'), 'foo/bar')
+        self.assert_equal(make_path_safe('../../foo/bar'), 'foo/bar')
+        self.assert_equal(make_path_safe('/'), '.')
+        self.assert_equal(make_path_safe('/'), '.')
+