BREW-YT-DLP-CVE-2023-46121 (CVE-2023-46121)

Vulnerability from osv_homebrew – Published: 2026-08-13 17:55 – Updated: 2026-09-10 21:31 – Source website
VLAI
Summary
Generic Extractor MITM Vulnerability in yt-dlp
Details

yt-dlp is a youtube-dl fork with additional features and fixes. The Generic Extractor in yt-dlp is vulnerable to an attacker setting an arbitrary proxy for a request to an arbitrary url, allowing the attacker to MITM the request made from yt-dlp's HTTP session. This could lead to cookie exfiltration in some cases. Version 2023.11.14 removed the ability to smuggle http_headers to the Generic extractor, as well as other extractors that use the same pattern. Users are advised to upgrade. Users unable to upgrade should disable the Ggneric extractor (or only pass trusted sites with trusted content) and ake caution when using --no-check-certificate.

Severity
5.0 (Medium)
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L
References
To clipboard 

{
  "affected": [
    {
      "ecosystem_specific": {
        "fix": "bump",
        "range_state": "fixed",
        "upstream_fixed_in": "2023.11.14"
      },
      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "Homebrew",
        "name": "yt-dlp",
        "purl": "pkg:brew/yt-dlp"
      },
      "ranges": [
        {
          "events": [
            {
              "introduced": "0"
            },
            {
              "fixed": "2026.7.4"
            }
          ],
          "type": "ECOSYSTEM"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "database_specific": {
    "confidence": "high",
    "source": "matched",
    "strategy": "git",
    "upstream_evidence": [
      {
        "ecosystem": "GIT",
        "key": "https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp",
        "name": "https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp",
        "strategy": "git",
        "subject_version": "2026.8.19"
      },
      {
        "ecosystem": "PyPI",
        "key": "pkg:pypi/yt-dlp@2026.8.19",
        "name": "yt-dlp",
        "strategy": "registry",
        "subject_version": "2026.8.19"
      },
      {
        "ecosystem": "Debian",
        "key": "Debian/yt-dlp",
        "name": "yt-dlp",
        "strategy": "distro"
      },
      {
        "ecosystem": "GIT",
        "key": "upstream:https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp",
        "name": "https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp",
        "strategy": "distro",
        "subject_version": "2026.8.19"
      },
      {
        "ecosystem": "PyPI",
        "key": "upstream:pkg:pypi/yt-dlp@2026.8.19",
        "name": "yt-dlp",
        "strategy": "distro",
        "subject_version": "2026.8.19"
      },
      {
        "ecosystem": "Ubuntu",
        "key": "Ubuntu/yt-dlp",
        "name": "yt-dlp",
        "strategy": "distro"
      }
    ]
  },
  "details": "yt-dlp is a youtube-dl fork with additional features and fixes. The Generic Extractor in yt-dlp is vulnerable to an attacker setting an arbitrary proxy for a request to an arbitrary url, allowing the attacker to MITM the request made from yt-dlp\u0027s HTTP session. This could lead to cookie exfiltration in some cases. Version 2023.11.14 removed the ability to smuggle `http_headers` to the Generic extractor, as well as other extractors that use the same pattern. Users are advised to upgrade. Users unable to upgrade should disable the Ggneric extractor (or only pass trusted sites with trusted content) and ake caution when using `--no-check-certificate`.",
  "id": "BREW-yt-dlp-CVE-2023-46121",
  "modified": "2026-09-10T21:31:39Z",
  "published": "2026-08-13T17:55:05Z",
  "references": [
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/tag/2023.11.14"
    },
    {
      "type": "ADVISORY",
      "url": "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2023/46xxx/CVE-2023-46121.json"
    },
    {
      "type": "ADVISORY",
      "url": "https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/security/advisories/GHSA-3ch3-jhc6-5r8x"
    },
    {
      "type": "ADVISORY",
      "url": "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-46121"
    },
    {
      "type": "FIX",
      "url": "https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/f04b5bedad7b281bee9814686bba1762bae092eb"
    }
  ],
  "schema_version": "1.7.3",
  "severity": [
    {
      "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L",
      "type": "CVSS_V3"
    }
  ],
  "summary": "Generic Extractor MITM Vulnerability in yt-dlp",
  "upstream": [
    "CVE-2023-46121",
    "GHSA-3ch3-jhc6-5r8x",
    "PYSEC-2026-2063"
  ]
}



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