diff --git a/apex/apex.go b/apex/apex.go
index c330f8254..289696557 100644
--- a/apex/apex.go
+++ b/apex/apex.go
@@ -1329,6 +1329,7 @@ func (a *apexBundle) DepsMutator(ctx android.BottomUpMutatorContext) {
 
 	targets := ctx.MultiTargets()
 	config := ctx.DeviceConfig()
+	imageVariation := a.getImageVariation(ctx)
 
 	a.combineProperties(ctx)
 
@@ -1348,13 +1349,13 @@ func (a *apexBundle) DepsMutator(ctx android.BottomUpMutatorContext) {
 				Jni_libs:           a.properties.Jni_libs,
 				Binaries:           nil,
 			},
-			target, a.getImageVariation(config))
+			target, imageVariation)
 
 		// Add native modules targetting both ABIs
 		addDependenciesForNativeModules(ctx,
 			a.properties.Multilib.Both,
 			target,
-			a.getImageVariation(config))
+			imageVariation)
 
 		isPrimaryAbi := i == 0
 		if isPrimaryAbi {
@@ -1367,13 +1368,13 @@ func (a *apexBundle) DepsMutator(ctx android.BottomUpMutatorContext) {
 					Jni_libs:           nil,
 					Binaries:           a.properties.Binaries,
 				},
-				target, a.getImageVariation(config))
+				target, imageVariation)
 
 			// Add native modules targetting the first ABI
 			addDependenciesForNativeModules(ctx,
 				a.properties.Multilib.First,
 				target,
-				a.getImageVariation(config))
+				imageVariation)
 		}
 
 		switch target.Arch.ArchType.Multilib {
@@ -1382,24 +1383,24 @@ func (a *apexBundle) DepsMutator(ctx android.BottomUpMutatorContext) {
 			addDependenciesForNativeModules(ctx,
 				a.properties.Multilib.Lib32,
 				target,
-				a.getImageVariation(config))
+				imageVariation)
 
 			addDependenciesForNativeModules(ctx,
 				a.properties.Multilib.Prefer32,
 				target,
-				a.getImageVariation(config))
+				imageVariation)
 		case "lib64":
 			// Add native modules targetting 64-bit ABI
 			addDependenciesForNativeModules(ctx,
 				a.properties.Multilib.Lib64,
 				target,
-				a.getImageVariation(config))
+				imageVariation)
 
 			if !has32BitTarget {
 				addDependenciesForNativeModules(ctx,
 					a.properties.Multilib.Prefer32,
 					target,
-					a.getImageVariation(config))
+					imageVariation)
 			}
 		}
 	}
@@ -1501,15 +1502,33 @@ func (a *apexBundle) testOnlyShouldSkipPayloadSign() bool {
 	return proptools.Bool(a.properties.Test_only_unsigned_payload)
 }
 
-func (a *apexBundle) getImageVariation(config android.DeviceConfig) string {
+func (a *apexBundle) getImageVariation(ctx android.BottomUpMutatorContext) string {
+	deviceConfig := ctx.DeviceConfig()
 	if a.vndkApex {
-		return cc.VendorVariationPrefix + a.vndkVersion(config)
+		return cc.VendorVariationPrefix + a.vndkVersion(deviceConfig)
 	}
-	if config.VndkVersion() != "" && proptools.Bool(a.properties.Use_vendor) {
-		return cc.VendorVariationPrefix + config.PlatformVndkVersion()
-	} else {
-		return android.CoreVariation
+
+	var prefix string
+	var vndkVersion string
+	if deviceConfig.VndkVersion() != "" {
+		if proptools.Bool(a.properties.Use_vendor) {
+			prefix = cc.VendorVariationPrefix
+			vndkVersion = deviceConfig.PlatformVndkVersion()
+		} else if a.SocSpecific() || a.DeviceSpecific() {
+			prefix = cc.VendorVariationPrefix
+			vndkVersion = deviceConfig.VndkVersion()
+		} else if a.ProductSpecific() {
+			prefix = cc.ProductVariationPrefix
+			vndkVersion = deviceConfig.ProductVndkVersion()
+		}
 	}
+	if vndkVersion == "current" {
+		vndkVersion = deviceConfig.PlatformVndkVersion()
+	}
+	if vndkVersion != "" {
+		return prefix + vndkVersion
+	}
+	return android.CoreVariation
 }
 
 func (a *apexBundle) EnableSanitizer(sanitizerName string) {
@@ -1541,7 +1560,7 @@ func (a *apexBundle) AddSanitizerDependencies(ctx android.BottomUpMutatorContext
 		for _, target := range ctx.MultiTargets() {
 			if target.Arch.ArchType.Multilib == "lib64" {
 				ctx.AddFarVariationDependencies(append(target.Variations(), []blueprint.Variation{
-					{Mutator: "image", Variation: a.getImageVariation(ctx.DeviceConfig())},
+					{Mutator: "image", Variation: a.getImageVariation(ctx)},
 					{Mutator: "link", Variation: "shared"},
 					{Mutator: "version", Variation: ""}, // "" is the non-stub variant
 				}...), sharedLibTag, "libclang_rt.hwasan-aarch64-android")
@@ -1785,6 +1804,12 @@ func (a *apexBundle) checkApexAvailability(ctx android.ModuleContext) {
 		return
 	}
 
+	// Because APEXes targeting other than system/system_ext partitions
+	// can't set apex_available, we skip checks for these APEXes
+	if ctx.SocSpecific() || ctx.DeviceSpecific() || ctx.ProductSpecific() {
+		return
+	}
+
 	// Coverage build adds additional dependencies for the coverage-only runtime libraries.
 	// Requiring them and their transitive depencies with apex_available is not right
 	// because they just add noise.
@@ -2203,6 +2228,12 @@ func (a *apexBundle) GenerateAndroidBuildActions(ctx android.ModuleContext) {
 		a.installable() &&
 		!proptools.Bool(a.properties.Use_vendor)
 
+	// APEXes targeting other than system/system_ext partitions use vendor/product variants.
+	// So we can't link them to /system/lib libs which are core variants.
+	if a.SocSpecific() || a.DeviceSpecific() || a.ProductSpecific() {
+		a.linkToSystemLib = false
+	}
+
 	// We don't need the optimization for updatable APEXes, as it might give false signal
 	// to the system health when the APEXes are still bundled (b/149805758)
 	if a.Updatable() && a.properties.ApexType == imageApex {
diff --git a/apex/apex_test.go b/apex/apex_test.go
index 3cd7d1b36..d5eb45761 100644
--- a/apex/apex_test.go
+++ b/apex/apex_test.go
@@ -2105,7 +2105,7 @@ func TestUseVendor(t *testing.T) {
 	ensureNotContains(t, inputsString, "android_arm64_armv8-a_shared_myapex/mylib2.so")
 }
 
-func TestUseVendorRestriction(t *testing.T) {
+func TestUseVendorNotAllowedForSystemApexes(t *testing.T) {
 	testApexError(t, `module "myapex" .*: use_vendor: not allowed`, `
 		apex {
 			name: "myapex",
@@ -2161,6 +2161,47 @@ func TestUseVendorFailsIfNotVendorAvailable(t *testing.T) {
 	`)
 }
 
+func TestVendorApex(t *testing.T) {
+	ctx, config := testApex(t, `
+		apex {
+			name: "myapex",
+			key: "myapex.key",
+			binaries: ["mybin"],
+			vendor: true,
+		}
+		apex_key {
+			name: "myapex.key",
+			public_key: "testkey.avbpubkey",
+			private_key: "testkey.pem",
+		}
+		cc_binary {
+			name: "mybin",
+			vendor: true,
+			shared_libs: ["libfoo"],
+		}
+		cc_library {
+			name: "libfoo",
+			proprietary: true,
+		}
+	`)
+
+	ensureExactContents(t, ctx, "myapex", "android_common_myapex_image", []string{
+		"bin/mybin",
+		"lib64/libfoo.so",
+		// TODO(b/159195575): Add an option to use VNDK libs from VNDK APEX
+		"lib64/libc++.so",
+	})
+
+	apexBundle := ctx.ModuleForTests("myapex", "android_common_myapex_image").Module().(*apexBundle)
+	data := android.AndroidMkDataForTest(t, config, "", apexBundle)
+	name := apexBundle.BaseModuleName()
+	prefix := "TARGET_"
+	var builder strings.Builder
+	data.Custom(&builder, name, prefix, "", data)
+	androidMk := builder.String()
+	ensureContains(t, androidMk, `LOCAL_MODULE_PATH := /tmp/target/product/test_device/vendor/apex`)
+}
+
 func TestAndroidMkWritesCommonProperties(t *testing.T) {
 	ctx, config := testApex(t, `
 		apex {