CVE - CVE-2023-40581

CVE-ID
CVE-2023-40581	Learn more at National Vulnerability Database (NVD) • CVSS Severity Rating • Fix Information • Vulnerable Software Versions • SCAP Mappings • CPE Information
Description
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.
References
Note: References are provided for the convenience of the reader to help distinguish between vulnerabilities. The list is not intended to be complete.
MISC:https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-nightly-builds/releases/tag/2023.09.24.003044 URL:https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-nightly-builds/releases/tag/2023.09.24.003044 MISC:https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/de015e930747165dbb8fcd360f8775fd973b7d6e URL:https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/de015e930747165dbb8fcd360f8775fd973b7d6e MISC:https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/tag/2021.04.11 URL:https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/tag/2021.04.11 MISC:https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/tag/2023.09.24 URL:https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/tag/2023.09.24 MISC:https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/security/advisories/GHSA-42h4-v29r-42qg URL:https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/security/advisories/GHSA-42h4-v29r-42qg
Assigning CNA
GitHub (maintainer security advisories)
Date Record Created
20230816	Disclaimer: The record creation date may reflect when the CVE ID was allocated or reserved, and does not necessarily indicate when this vulnerability was discovered, shared with the affected vendor, publicly disclosed, or updated in CVE.
Phase (Legacy)
Assigned (20230816)
Votes (Legacy)

Comments (Legacy)

Proposed (Legacy)
N/A
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