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yt-dlp: `--exec` command injection when using `%q` in yt-dlp on Windows (Bypass of CVE-2023-40581)GHSA-hjq6-52gw-2g7p

HIGHFix: yt-dlp/yt-dlp@de015e9

GHSA-hjq6-52gw-2g7p 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.

Also known asCVE-2024-22423PYSEC-2026-2066
Published
Updated
Affected
1 pkg
Patched
1 / 1
Exploits
None indexed
Exploitation data as of Nov 12, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

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 GHSA-hjq6-52gw-2g7p.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗
1.4%probability of exploitation in next 30 days
Lower Risk0.00%
Lower risk than most CVEs73th percentile — riskier than 73% of all scored CVEsHighest risk
0.00%2.76%5.52%8.29%6.7%1.4%May 26Sep 26Nov 26

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.

How urgent is this, really

Where this sits among everything scored

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

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 --exec other than {} (filepath).
  • If expansion in --exec is 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

1 total 1 fixed
EcosystemPackageVulnerable rangeFix
🐍PyPIyt-dlp≥ 2021.04.11&&< 2024.04.092024.04.09pip install --upgrade 'yt-dlp==2024.04.09'

Affected Products

1 product · 1 configurations
Application
yt-dlpyt-dlp_project
≥ 2021.04.11 && < 2024.04.09
range

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 2024.04.09 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-hjq6-52gw-2g7p is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

  3. Workarounds

    Stop passing untrusted input into the interpreter or shell: call the affected binary with an argument array rather than a composed command string, reject anything outside a strict allowlist of expected values, and run the component under an account that cannot reach beyond the work it legitimately does.

Frequently Asked Questions

### Summary The [patch that addressed CVE-2023-40581](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/de015e930747165dbb8fcd360f8775fd973b7d6e) 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](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/tag/2021.04.11). ```cmd > yt-dlp "https://youtu.be/42xO6rVqf2E" --ignore-config -f 18
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