diff --git a/tools/idf_tools.py b/tools/idf_tools.py
index b3c4c9a962..ed2bc5ef82 100755
--- a/tools/idf_tools.py
+++ b/tools/idf_tools.py
@@ -469,10 +469,7 @@ def get_env_for_extra_paths(extra_paths: List[str]) -> Dict[str, str]:
     """
     env_arg = os.environ.copy()
     new_path = os.pathsep.join(extra_paths) + os.pathsep + env_arg['PATH']
-    if sys.version_info.major == 2:
-        env_arg['PATH'] = new_path.encode('utf8')  # type: ignore
-    else:
-        env_arg['PATH'] = new_path
+    env_arg['PATH'] = new_path
     return env_arg
 
 
@@ -526,11 +523,14 @@ def unpack(filename: str, destination: str) -> None:
         archive_obj = ZipFile(filename)
     else:
         raise NotImplementedError('Unsupported archive type')
-    if sys.version_info.major == 2:
-        # This is a workaround for the issue that unicode destination is not handled:
-        # https://bugs.python.org/issue17153
-        destination = str(destination)
-    archive_obj.extractall(destination)
+
+    # Handle tar/zip extraction with backward compatibility
+    if isinstance(archive_obj, tarfile.TarFile) and sys.version_info[:2] >= (3, 12):
+        # Use the tar filter argument for Python 3.12 and later
+        archive_obj.extractall(destination, filter='tar')
+    else:
+        archive_obj.extractall(destination)
+
     # ZipFile on Unix systems does not preserve file permissions while extracting it
     # We need to reset the permissions afterward
     if sys.platform != 'win32' and filename.endswith('zip') and isinstance(archive_obj, ZipFile):
@@ -3229,15 +3229,6 @@ def main(argv: List[str]) -> None:
     # See https://bugs.python.org/issue22490#msg283859.
     os.environ.pop('__PYVENV_LAUNCHER__', None)
 
-    if sys.version_info.major == 2:
-        try:
-            g.idf_tools_path.decode('ascii')  # type: ignore
-        except UnicodeDecodeError:
-            fatal(f'IDF_TOOLS_PATH contains non-ASCII characters: {g.idf_tools_path}'
-                  '\nThis is not supported yet with Python 2. '
-                  'Please set IDF_TOOLS_PATH to a directory with an ASCII name, or switch to Python 3.')
-            raise SystemExit(1)
-
     if CURRENT_PLATFORM is None:
         fatal(f'Platform {PYTHON_PLATFORM} appears to be unsupported')
         raise SystemExit(1)