Critical severity · published Apr 9, 2024
CVE-2024-22423
yt-dlp is a youtube-dl fork with additional features and fixes
9.8
CVSS
1.4%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
yt-dlp is a youtube-dl fork with additional features and fixes. The patch that addressed CVE-2023-40581 attempted to prevent RCE when using `--exec` with `%q` by replacing double quotes with two double quotes. However, this escaping is not sufficient, and still allows expansion of environment variables. Support for output template expansion in `--exec`, along with this vulnerable behavior, was added to `yt-dlp` in version 2021.04.11. yt-dlp version 2024.04.09 fixes this issue by properly escaping `%`. It replaces them with `%%cd:~,%`, a variable that expands to nothing, leaving only the leading percent. It is recommended to upgrade yt-dlp to version 2024.04.09 as soon as possible. Also, always be careful when using `--exec`, because while this specific vulnerability has been patched, using unvalidated input in shell commands is inherently dangerous. For Windows users who are not able to upgrade, avoid using any output template expansion in `--exec` other than `{}` (filepath); if expansion in `--exec` is needed, verify the fields you are using do not contain `"`, `|` or `&`; and/or instead of using `--exec`, write the info json and load the fields from it instead.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)1.4% · higher than 73% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
YT
Yt-dlp · Yt-dlp Project
2021.04.11 before 2024.04.09 · source: NVD
Affected product
YT
Yt-dlp
Yt-dlp Project
More from Yt-dlp
9.8
CVE-2024-3566
A command inject vulnerability allows an attacker to perform command injection on Windows applications that indirectly depend on the CreateProcess function when the specific…
9.6
CVE-2026-50574
yt-dlp: Arbitrary code execution via manifest downloads with aria2c
9.6
CVE-2026-50023
yt-dlp: Dangerous file type creation via insufficient filename sanitization (Bypass of CVE-2024-38519)
8.8
CVE-2026-55404
yt-dlp: Downstream command injection via improper sanitization of yt-dlp --write-link output
8.8
CVE-2026-26331
yt-dlp is a command-line audio/video downloader