[BUG] Error parsing XML when manifest contains &

[inech]

Information

1. Apktool Version (apktool -version) - 2.6.1
2. Operating System (Mac, Linux, Windows) - Linux
3. APK From? (Playstore, ROM, Other) - Other

Error

 ✔ Checking prerequisities
  ✔ Decoding APK file
  ✔ Applying patches
  ❯ Encoding patched APK file
    ↓ Encoding using AAPT2 [skipped]
      → Failed, falling back to AAPT...
    ✖ Encoding using AAPT [fallback]
      → I: Building resources...
    Signing patched APK file

   Failed!  An error occurred:

I: Using Apktool 2.6.1
I: Checking whether sources has changed...
I: Checking whether sources has changed...
[Fatal Error] :40:252: The entity name must immediately follow the '&' in the entity reference.
I: Checking whether resources has changed...
I: Building resources...
W: <tmp_dir>/decode/AndroidManifest.xml:40: error: Error parsing XML: not well-formed (invalid token)

ApplicationManifest.xml snippet:

<application android:allowBackup="false" android:appComponentFactory="androidx.core.app.CoreComponentFactory" android:extractNativeLibs="true" android:fullBackupOnly="false" android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher" android:label="A & B" android:name="..." android:networkSecurityConfig="@xml/nsc_mitm">

When manifest contains & (ampersand) e.g. android:label="A & B" there is an error during encoding.

[iBotPeaches]

Not sure this is an issue. A manifest cannot have an & that is clearly an invalid XML character. If its escaped - it works and I wrote a test that confirms Apktool handles this properly.