Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HSummary
CVE-2026-26331 is a high-severity OS Command Injection (CWE-78) vulnerability in Yt-Dlp Project Yt-Dlp. Its CVSS base score is 8.8 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Command and Scripting Interpreter (T1059); ranked in the top 26% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary
Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.
CVE-2026-26331 is an arbitrary command injection vulnerability in yt-dlp, a command-line audio/video downloader. It affects versions starting from 2023.06.21 up to but not including 2026.02.21, specifically when the `--netrc-cmd` command-line option or the `netrc_cmd` Python API parameter is used. A maliciously crafted URL can trigger the injection during netrc processing, enabling attackers to execute arbitrary commands on the user's system.
Exploitation requires a user to invoke yt-dlp with the vulnerable options while downloading from a malicious URL, which demands user interaction (UI:R) but no privileges (PR:N) and is network-accessible (AV:N). Although the malicious URL may appear suspicious, an attacker could covertly deliver it via an HTTP redirect from an inconspicuous webpage. Successful attacks achieve high confidentiality, integrity, and availability impacts (C:H/I:H/A:H), with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 8.8.
yt-dlp version 2026.02.21 fixes the issue by validating all netrc "machine" values and raising an error on unexpected input. As a workaround, users unable to upgrade should avoid the `--netrc-cmd` option or `netrc_cmd` parameter entirely, or at least not pass a placeholder like `{}` in the argument. Details are documented in the project's GitHub security advisory (GHSA-g3gw-q23r-pgqm), release notes for 2026.02.21, and the fixing commit.
No evidence of real-world exploitation has been found, and users not employing the affected options remain unaffected. The flaw is classified under CWE-78 (OS Command Injection).
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-7408
Vulnerability Data
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…
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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.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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V1.2.5V1.2.8V15.2.5
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Developer testing and evaluation can discover missing or incorrect command sanitization during development.
Input validation directly neutralizes or rejects special characters that would otherwise alter OS command structure.
Least privilege reduces the permissions available to any process that could be subverted by injected commands.
Least functionality restricts available OS commands and interpreters, limiting the blast radius of injection.
Secure engineering principles require proper neutralization of untrusted input before command construction.
Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
PR.PS-06's SDLC practices directly require secure coding and input handling that blocks command-injection defects, yet the single broad outcome leaves many specific neutralization vectors and verification gaps unaddressed.
Routine patching/maintenance can remediate known command-injection CVEs in dependencies (partial forward) but does nothing to stop developers from introducing improper neutralization in custom code (none reverse).
Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Security testing and code review target insecure use of operating-system command interfaces, catching command-injection flaws introduced during development.