CVE-2026-55404: high-severity vulnerability in yt-dlp
yt-dlp: Downstream command injection via improper sanitization of yt-dlp --write-link output
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21Vexday Risk Score
No sign of exploitation. No public exploitation artifact known so far.
ssvc Trackcvss 7.5epss 0.6%
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.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Affected products
yt-dlp · yt-dlpRelated CVEs — yt-dlp
In the same product, most dangerous first.
CVE-2026-26331HIGHyt-dlp: Arbitrary Command Injection when using the `--netrc-cmd` optionEPSS 1.8%CVE-2024-22423HIGHyt-dlp `--exec` command injection when using `%q` in yt-dlp on WindowsEPSS 1.4%CVE-2023-40581HIGHyt-dlp command injection when using `%q` in `--exec` on WindowsEPSS 1.3%CVE-2023-35934MEDIUMyt-dlp File Downloader cookie leakEPSS 1.0%CVE-2026-50023HIGHyt-dlp: Dangerous file type creation via insufficient filename sanitization (Bypass of CVE-2024-38519)EPSS 0.7%CVE-2025-54072HIGHyt-dlp allows `--exec` command injection when using placeholder on WindowsEPSS 0.7%