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.
{
"cwe_ids": [
"CWE-74"
],
"osv_generated_from": "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2026/55xxx/CVE-2026-55404.json",
"unresolved_ranges": [
{
"extracted_events": [
{
"fixed": "2026.7.4"
}
],
"source": "AFFECTED_FIELD"
}
],
"cna_assigner": "GitHub_M"
}{
"cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:yt-dlp_project:yt-dlp:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"extracted_events": [
{
"introduced": "0"
},
{
"fixed": "2026.07.04"
}
],
"source": [
"CPE_RANGE",
"REFERENCES"
]
}