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🐍 PyPI
Not in CISA KEV
HIGH severity

CVE-2026-26331 yt-dlp

HIGHFix: yt-dlp/yt-dlp@1fbbe29

CVE-2026-26331 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.8) OS Command Injection vulnerability in yt-dlp. A fix is available for yt-dlp — see the affected versions and patch details below.

yt-dlp: Arbitrary Command Injection when using the `--netrc-cmd` option

Also known asGHSA-g3gw-q23r-pgqmPYSEC-2026-3432
Published
Feb 24, 2026
Updated
Aug 12, 2026
Affected
1 pkg
Patched
1 / 1
Exploits
None indexed
Exploitation data as of Sep 19, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

Exploitation Status

No confirmed exploitation observed yet

  • A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
  • 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-2026-26331.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗
1.6%probability of exploitation in next 30 days
Lower Risk0.00%
Lower risk than most CVEs75th percentile — riskier than 75% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

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-2026-26331 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 377,636 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

1 pkg affected
🐍yt-dlp

Real-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

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.

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed
EcosystemPackageVulnerable rangeFix
🐍PyPIyt-dlp2023.06.21&&< 2026.02.212026.02.21pip install --upgrade 'yt-dlp==2026.02.21'

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency
  1. Detect

    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.

  2. Fix

    Update yt-dlp to 2026.02.21 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-26331 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

  3. 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.

  4. How O3 protects you

    O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2026-26331 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.

Tailored to CVE-2026-26331. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.

Frequently Asked Questions

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 fo
O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is CVE-2026-26331 in your dependencies?

O3 Security finds CVE-2026-26331 across PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.

CVE-2026-26331: yt-dlp (High 8.8) | O3 Security