CVE-2026-55404

Severity CVSS v4.0:

Pending analysis

Type:

CWE-74 Injection

Publication date:

08/07/2026

Last modified:

13/07/2026

Description

yt-dlp and youtube-dl are command-line audio/video downloaders. Prior to 2026.7.4, the --write-link, --write-url-link, and --write-desktop-link options can write .url or .desktop shortcut files using attacker-controlled webpage_url or filename metadata without sufficient validation or escaping, allowing malicious file:// URI injection on Windows or newline-based desktop entry key injection on Linux that can execute commands if the generated shortcut is opened. This issue is fixed in version 2026.7.4.

Impact

Vector 3.x

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H CVSS v3.1 Severity and Metrics:

Base Score: 7.50 HIGH
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Attack Vector (AV): Network
Attack Complexity (AC): High
Privileges Required (PR): None
User Interaction (UI): Required
Scope (S): Unchanged
Confidentiality (C): High
Integrity (I): High
Availability (A): High