GHSA-f7j3-774f-rfhj is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.1) vulnerability in yt-dlp. O3 Security confirms whether GHSA-f7j3-774f-rfhj is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
yt-dlp: File Downloader cookie leak with curl
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
If curl is used an external downloader for yt-dlp, cookies may be leaked to an unintended host upon HTTP redirect or when the host for download fragments differs from their parent manifest's.
This is the equivalent to GHSA-v8mc-9377-rwjj for the curl downloader. The vulnerable behavior is present in yt-dlp released since 2023.09.24.
Details
At the file download stage, the cookies are passed by yt-dlp to the file downloader via --cookie. However, unless these are loaded from a file, this operation does not activate the cookie engine. As a result, curl will send cookies with requests to domains or paths for which the cookies are not scoped.
An example of a potential attack scenario exploiting this vulnerability:
- an attacker has crafted a malicious website with an embedded URL designed to be detected by yt-dlp as a video download. This embedded URL has the domain of a trusted site that the user has loaded cookies for, and conducts an unvalidated redirect to a target URL.
- yt-dlp extracts this URL and calculates the cookies which are then passed to
curl. - the download URL redirects to a server controlled by the attacker, to which
curlforwards the user's sensitive cookie information.
Patches
yt-dlp version 2026.06.09 fixes this issue by doing the following:
- Pass the cookies through stdin via
--cookie -ifcurlis version 7.59 or higher. - Pass the cookies via
--cookie /dev/fd/0if the system supports this device file. - In all other cases create a temporary file, save the cookies and then pass via
--cookie <file>.
Workarounds
It is recommended to upgrade yt-dlp to version 2026.06.09 as soon as possible.
For users who are not able to upgrade:
- Do not use
--downloader curl.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | yt-dlp | ≥ 2023.9.24&&< 2026.6.9 | 2026.6.9 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for yt-dlp. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update yt-dlp to 2026.6.9 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-f7j3-774f-rfhj 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 pinpoints whether GHSA-f7j3-774f-rfhj is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to GHSA-f7j3-774f-rfhj. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-f7j3-774f-rfhj in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-f7j3-774f-rfhj across PyPI dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.