ubuntu-cve-2026-26331
Vulnerability from osv_ubuntu
Published
2026-02-24 03:16
Modified
2026-05-20 15:26
Summary
Details

yt-dlp is a command-line audio/video downloader. Starting in version 2023.06.21 and prior to version 2026.02.21, when yt-dlp's --netrc-cmd command-line option (or netrc_cmd Python API parameter) is used, an attacker could achieve arbitrary command injection on the user's system with a maliciously crafted URL. yt-dlp maintainers assume the impact of this vulnerability to be high for anyone who uses --netrc-cmd in their command/configuration or netrc_cmd in their Python scripts. Even though the maliciously crafted URL itself will look very suspicious to many users, it would be trivial for a maliciously crafted webpage with an inconspicuous URL to covertly exploit this vulnerability via HTTP redirect. Users without --netrc-cmd in their arguments or netrc_cmd in their scripts are unaffected. No evidence has been found of this exploit being used in the wild. yt-dlp version 2026.02.21 fixes this issue by validating all netrc "machine" values and raising an error upon unexpected input. As a workaround, users who are unable to upgrade should avoid using the --netrc-cmd command-line option (or netrc_cmd Python API parameter), or they should at least not pass a placeholder ({}) in their --netrc-cmd argument.

Severity
8.8 (High)
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
N/A (UNKNOWN)
medium
References
To clipboard 

{
  "affected": [
    {
      "ecosystem_specific": {
        "binaries": [
          {
            "binary_name": "yt-dlp",
            "binary_version": "2022.04.08-1"
          }
        ]
      },
      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "Ubuntu:22.04:LTS",
        "name": "yt-dlp",
        "purl": "pkg:deb/ubuntu/yt-dlp@2022.04.08-1?arch=source\u0026distro=jammy"
      },
      "ranges": [
        {
          "events": [
            {
              "introduced": "0"
            }
          ],
          "type": "ECOSYSTEM"
        }
      ],
      "versions": [
        "2021.12.01-1",
        "2021.12.27-1",
        "2022.01.21-1",
        "2022.02.04-1",
        "2022.03.08.1-1",
        "2022.04.08-1"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ecosystem_specific": {
        "binaries": [
          {
            "binary_name": "yt-dlp",
            "binary_version": "2024.04.09-1"
          }
        ]
      },
      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "Ubuntu:24.04:LTS",
        "name": "yt-dlp",
        "purl": "pkg:deb/ubuntu/yt-dlp@2024.04.09-1?arch=source\u0026distro=noble"
      },
      "ranges": [
        {
          "events": [
            {
              "introduced": "0"
            }
          ],
          "type": "ECOSYSTEM"
        }
      ],
      "versions": [
        "2023.07.06-1",
        "2023.10.13-1ubuntu1",
        "2023.11.16-1",
        "2023.12.30-1ubuntu1",
        "2024.03.10-1",
        "2024.04.09-1"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ecosystem_specific": {
        "binaries": [
          {
            "binary_name": "yt-dlp",
            "binary_version": "2025.09.23-1"
          }
        ]
      },
      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "Ubuntu:25.10",
        "name": "yt-dlp",
        "purl": "pkg:deb/ubuntu/yt-dlp@2025.09.23-1?arch=source\u0026distro=questing"
      },
      "ranges": [
        {
          "events": [
            {
              "introduced": "0"
            }
          ],
          "type": "ECOSYSTEM"
        }
      ],
      "versions": [
        "2025.03.27-1",
        "2025.04.30-1",
        "2025.05.22-1",
        "2025.06.09-1",
        "2025.06.25-1",
        "2025.06.30-1",
        "2025.07.21-1",
        "2025.08.11-1",
        "2025.08.20-1",
        "2025.08.22-1",
        "2025.08.27-1",
        "2025.09.05-1",
        "2025.09.23-1"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ecosystem_specific": {
        "binaries": [
          {
            "binary_name": "yt-dlp",
            "binary_version": "2026.03.17-1"
          }
        ]
      },
      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "Ubuntu:26.04:LTS",
        "name": "yt-dlp",
        "purl": "pkg:deb/ubuntu/yt-dlp@2026.03.17-1?arch=source\u0026distro=resolute"
      },
      "ranges": [
        {
          "events": [
            {
              "introduced": "0"
            }
          ],
          "type": "ECOSYSTEM"
        }
      ],
      "versions": [
        "2025.09.23-1",
        "2025.10.22-1",
        "2025.11.12-1",
        "2025.12.08-1",
        "2026.01.31-1",
        "2026.03.17-1"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "aliases": [],
  "details": "yt-dlp is a command-line audio/video downloader. Starting in version 2023.06.21 and prior to version 2026.02.21, when yt-dlp\u0027s `--netrc-cmd` command-line option (or `netrc_cmd` Python API parameter) is used, an attacker could achieve arbitrary command injection on the user\u0027s system with a maliciously crafted URL. yt-dlp maintainers assume the impact of this vulnerability to be high for anyone who uses `--netrc-cmd` in their command/configuration or `netrc_cmd` in their Python scripts. Even though the maliciously crafted URL itself will look very suspicious to many users, it would be trivial for a maliciously crafted webpage with an inconspicuous URL to covertly exploit this vulnerability via HTTP redirect. Users without `--netrc-cmd` in their arguments or `netrc_cmd` in their scripts are unaffected. No evidence has been found of this exploit being used in the wild. yt-dlp version 2026.02.21 fixes this issue by validating all netrc \"machine\" values and raising an error upon unexpected input. As a workaround, users who are unable to upgrade should avoid using the `--netrc-cmd` command-line option (or `netrc_cmd` Python API parameter), or they should at least not pass a placeholder (`{}`) in their `--netrc-cmd` argument.",
  "id": "UBUNTU-CVE-2026-26331",
  "modified": "2026-05-20T15:26:06Z",
  "published": "2026-02-24T03:16:00Z",
  "references": [
    {
      "type": "REPORT",
      "url": "https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-26331"
    },
    {
      "type": "REPORT",
      "url": "https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-26331"
    },
    {
      "type": "REPORT",
      "url": "https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/1fbbe29b99dc61375bf6d786f824d9fcf6ea9c1a"
    },
    {
      "type": "REPORT",
      "url": "https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/tag/2026.02.21"
    },
    {
      "type": "REPORT",
      "url": "https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/security/advisories/GHSA-g3gw-q23r-pgqm"
    }
  ],
  "related": [],
  "schema_version": "1.7.0",
  "severity": [
    {
      "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H",
      "type": "CVSS_V3"
    },
    {
      "score": "medium",
      "type": "Ubuntu"
    }
  ],
  "upstream": [
    "CVE-2026-26331"
  ]
}



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