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OpenAdvisories
High · 7.5 CVE-2026-55404 EUVD-2026-42368GHSA-6v4j-43gg-vj32PYSEC-2026-3622

yt-dlp: Downstream command injection via improper sanitization of yt-dlp --write-link output

Published Jul 8, 2026 · Updated Jul 9, 2026 · Assigned by GitHub_M

Description

yt-dlp and youtube-dl are command-line audio/video downloaders. Prior to 2026.7.4, the --write-link, --write-url-link, and --write-desktop-link options can write .url or .desktop shortcut files using attacker-controlled webpage_url or filename metadata without sufficient validation or escaping, allowing malicious file:// URI injection on Windows or newline-based desktop entry key injection on Linux that can execute commands if the generated shortcut is opened. This issue is fixed in version 2026.7.4.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
yt-dlp yt-dlp < 2026.7.4 —

Fixed in Linux distributions

Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian 14 yt-dlp 2026.07.04-1 —
Debian 13 yt-dlp No fix yet —
Debian 12 yt-dlp No fix yet —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 26.10 yt-dlp No fix yet —
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS yt-dlp No fix yet —
Ubuntu 25.10 yt-dlp No fix yet —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS yt-dlp No fix yet —
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS yt-dlp +1 No fix yet —
Show 3 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS youtube-dl No fix yet —
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS youtube-dl No fix yet —
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS youtube-dl No fix yet —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
openSUSE Tumbleweed yt-dlp 2026.07.04-1.1 openSUSE-SU-2026:11196-1
openSUSE Leap 16.0 yt-dlp 2026.08.19-bp160.1.1 openSUSE-SU-2026:22142-1

Affected packages

EcosystemPackageAffectedFixedRecord
PyPI yt-dlp < 2026.7.4 2026.7.4 GHSA-6v4j-43gg-vj32

Advisories 2

References