CVE-2025-54072 HIGH

CVE-2025-54072: yt-dlp allows `--exec` command injection when using placeholder on Windows

Vendor Yt-Dlp
Product yt-dlp
Weakness CWE-78
Published July 22, 2025
Last update July 23, 2025

CVSS base score

7.5/10
Attack vector Network
Attack complexity High
Privileges required None
User interaction Required
Confidentiality High
Integrity High

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

What the vulnerability does

01Description

yt-dlp is a feature-rich command-line audio/video downloader. In versions 2025.06.25 and below, when the --exec option is used on Windows with the default placeholder (or {}), insufficient sanitization is applied to the expanded filepath, allowing for remote code execution. This is a bypass of the mitigation for CVE-2024-22423 where the default placeholder and {} were not covered by the new escaping rules. Windows users who are unable to upgrade should avoid using --exec altogether. Instead, the --write-info-json or --dump-json options could be used, with an external script or command line consuming the JSON output. This is fixed in version 2025.07.21.

Key dates

02Disclosure timeline

July 22, 2025 CVE published
July 23, 2025 Record updated