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CVE-2026-55404 — yt-dlp: Downstream command injection via improper sanitization of yt-dlp --write-link output

Affected: yt-dlp

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.

GHSA-6v4j-43gg-vj32 — yt-dlp: Downstream command injection via improper sanitization of yt-dlp --write-link output

Affected: PyPI: yt-dlp

### Summary If the `--write-link`, `--write-url-link` or `--write-desktop-link` options are used with yt-dlp, it may produce output that can lead to downstream remote code execution. An attacker can craft a malicious metadata payload to achieve arbitrary command injection in the `.url` and `.desktop` shortcut files written by yt-dlp. This allows for malicious shell commands or malicious remote executables to run on the user's system if the user executes the generated `.url` or `.desktop` files.

### Details The expected result of yt-dlp's `--write-link`, `--write-url-link` and `--write-desktop-link` options is to write a shortcut file that points to the webpage URL for the content downloaded by yt-dlp. The `--write-url-link` option writes a `.url` shortcut file for Windows, the `--write-desktop-link` option writes a `.desktop` shortcut file for Linux, and the `--write-link` option may write a `.url` file or a `.desktop` file depending on the user's platform.

There are two known scenarios where a remote attacker could serve a malicious metadata payload to exploit yt-dlp's improper validation/sanitization of its shortcut output and achieve arbitrary code execution if the user later opens these files.

#### Scenario 1: `file://` URI injection in Windows `.url` shortcut

If a yt-dlp user passes the `--write-link` or `--write-url-link` option to generate a Windows `.url` file, the URL written to the shortcut file is sourced from the downloaded media's metadata--specifically, its…

PYSEC-2026-3622 — yt-dlp: Downstream command injection via improper sanitization of yt-dlp --write-link output

Affected: PyPI: yt-dlp

#### Scenario 1: `file://` URI injection in Windows `.url` shortcut