{"id":"ALPINE-CVE-2023-40581","details":"yt-dlp is a youtube-dl fork with additional features and fixes. yt-dlp allows the user to provide shell command lines to be executed at various stages in its download steps through the `--exec` flag. This flag allows output template expansion in its argument, so that metadata values may be used in the shell commands. The metadata fields can be combined with the `%q` conversion, which is intended to quote/escape these values so they can be safely passed to the shell. However, the escaping used for `cmd` (the shell used by Python's `subprocess` on Windows) does not properly escape special characters, which can allow for remote code execution if `--exec` is used directly with maliciously crafted remote data. This vulnerability only impacts `yt-dlp` on Windows, and the vulnerability is present regardless of whether `yt-dlp` is run from `cmd` or from `PowerShell`. Support for output template expansion in `--exec`, along with this vulnerable behavior, was added to `yt-dlp` in version 2021.04.11. yt-dlp version 2023.09.24 fixes this issue by properly escaping each special character. `\\n` will be replaced by `\\r` as no way of escaping it has been found. It is recommended to upgrade yt-dlp to version 2023.09.24 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: 1. Avoid using any output template expansion in --exec other than {} (filepath). 2. If expansion in --exec is needed, verify the fields you are using do not contain \", | or &. 3. Instead of using --exec, write the info json and load the fields from it instead.\n","modified":"2026-11-03T06:32:02.643021524Z","published":"2023-09-25T19:15:09.960Z","upstream":["CVE-2023-40581"],"references":[{"type":"ADVISORY","url":"https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2023-40581"}],"affected":[{"package":{"name":"yt-dlp","ecosystem":"Alpine:v3.19","purl":"pkg:apk/alpine/yt-dlp?arch=source"},"ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"2021.04.11"},{"fixed":"2023.09.24-r0"}]}],"ecosystem_specific":{},"database_specific":{"source":"https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/alpine/ALPINE-CVE-2023-40581.json"}},{"package":{"name":"yt-dlp","ecosystem":"Alpine:v3.20","purl":"pkg:apk/alpine/yt-dlp?arch=source"},"ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"2021.04.11"},{"fixed":"0-r0"}]}],"ecosystem_specific":{},"database_specific":{"source":"https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/alpine/ALPINE-CVE-2023-40581.json"}},{"package":{"name":"yt-dlp","ecosystem":"Alpine:v3.21","purl":"pkg:apk/alpine/yt-dlp?arch=source"},"ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"2021.04.11"},{"fixed":"0-r0"}]}],"ecosystem_specific":{},"database_specific":{"source":"https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/alpine/ALPINE-CVE-2023-40581.json"}},{"package":{"name":"yt-dlp","ecosystem":"Alpine:v3.22","purl":"pkg:apk/alpine/yt-dlp?arch=source"},"ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"2021.04.11"},{"fixed":"0-r0"}]}],"ecosystem_specific":{},"database_specific":{"source":"https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/alpine/ALPINE-CVE-2023-40581.json"}},{"package":{"name":"yt-dlp","ecosystem":"Alpine:v3.23","purl":"pkg:apk/alpine/yt-dlp?arch=source"},"ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"2021.04.11"},{"fixed":"0-r0"}]}],"ecosystem_specific":{},"database_specific":{"source":"https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/alpine/ALPINE-CVE-2023-40581.json"}},{"package":{"name":"yt-dlp","ecosystem":"Alpine:v3.24","purl":"pkg:apk/alpine/yt-dlp?arch=source"},"ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"2021.04.11"},{"fixed":"0-r0"}]}],"ecosystem_specific":{},"database_specific":{"source":"https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/alpine/ALPINE-CVE-2023-40581.json"}}],"schema_version":"1.9.2","severity":[{"type":"CVSS_V3","score":"CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H"}]}