CVE-2024-22423 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.3) OS Command Injection vulnerability in yt-dlp. A fix is available for yt-dlp — see the affected versions and patch details below.
yt-dlp `--exec` command injection when using `%q` in yt-dlp on Windows
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2024-22423.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2024-22423 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 378,567 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
yt-dlpReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects PyPI packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Summary
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 "https://youtu.be/42xO6rVqf2E" --ignore-config -f 18 --exec "echo %(title)q"
[youtube] Extracting URL: https://youtu.be/42xO6rVqf2E
[youtube] 42xO6rVqf2E: Downloading webpage
[youtube] 42xO6rVqf2E: Downloading ios player API JSON
[youtube] 42xO6rVqf2E: Downloading android player API JSON
[youtube] 42xO6rVqf2E: Downloading m3u8 information
[info] 42xO6rVqf2E: Downloading 1 format(s): 18
[download] Destination: %CMDCMDLINE：~-1%&echo pwned&calc.exe [42xO6rVqf2E].mp4
[download] 100% of 126.16KiB in 00:00:00 at 2.46MiB/s
[Exec] Executing command: echo "%CMDCMDLINE:~-1%&echo pwned&calc.exe"
""
pwned
Patches
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.
Workarounds
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
--execother than{}(filepath). - If expansion in
--execis needed, verify the fields you are using do not contain%,",|or&. - Instead of using
--exec, write the info json and load the fields from it instead.
Details
When escaping variables, the following code is used for Windows.
yt_dlp/compat/__init__.py line 31-33
def compat_shlex_quote(s):
import re
return s if re.match(r'^[-_\w./]+$', s) else s.replace('"', '""').join('""')
It replaces " with "" to balance out the quotes and keep quoting intact if non-allowed characters are included. However, the %CMDCMDLINE% variable can be used to generate a quote using %CMDCMDLINE:~-1%; since the value of %CMDCMDLINE% is the commandline with which cmd.exe was called, and it is always called with the command surrounded by quotes, %CMDCMDLINE:~-1% expands to ". After the quotes have been unbalanced, special characters are no longer quoted and commands can be executed:
%CMDCMDLINE:~-1%&calc.exe
References
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | yt-dlp | ≥ 2021.04.11&&< 2024.04.09 | 2024.04.09pip install --upgrade 'yt-dlp==2024.04.09' |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for yt-dlp, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update yt-dlp to 2024.04.09 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-22423 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2024-22423 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2024-22423. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2024-22423 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2024-22423 across PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.