UBUNTU-CVE-2024-38519 (CVE-2024-38519)

Vulnerability from osv_ubuntu – Published: 2024-07-02 14:15 – Updated: 2026-05-20 15:10 – Source website
VLAI
Details

yt-dlp and youtube-dl are command-line audio/video downloaders. Prior to the fixed versions, yt-dlp and youtube-dl do not limit the extensions of downloaded files, which could lead to arbitrary filenames being created in the download folder (and path traversal on Windows). Since yt-dlp and youtube-dl also read config from the working directory (and on Windows executables will be executed from the yt-dlp or youtube-dl directory), this could lead to arbitrary code being executed. yt-dlp version 2024.07.01 fixes this issue by whitelisting the allowed extensions. youtube-dl fixes this issue in commit d42a222 on the master branch and in nightly builds tagged 2024-07-03 or later. This might mean some very uncommon extensions might not get downloaded, however it will also limit the possible exploitation surface. In addition to upgrading, have .%(ext)s at the end of the output template and make sure the user trusts the websites that they are downloading from. Also, make sure to never download to a directory within PATH or other sensitive locations like one's user directory, system32, or other binaries locations. For users who are not able to upgrade, keep the default output template (-o "%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s); make sure the extension of the media to download is a common video/audio/sub/... one; try to avoid the generic extractor; and/or use --ignore-config --config-location ... to not load config from common locations.

Severity
7.8 (High)
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
N/A (UNKNOWN)
medium
References
To clipboard 

{
  "affected": [
    {
      "ecosystem_specific": {
        "binaries": [
          {
            "binary_name": "yt-dlp",
            "binary_version": "2022.04.08-1"
          }
        ]
      },
      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "Ubuntu:22.04:LTS",
        "name": "yt-dlp",
        "purl": "pkg:deb/ubuntu/yt-dlp@2022.04.08-1?arch=source\u0026distro=jammy"
      },
      "ranges": [
        {
          "events": [
            {
              "introduced": "0"
            }
          ],
          "type": "ECOSYSTEM"
        }
      ],
      "versions": [
        "2021.12.01-1",
        "2021.12.27-1",
        "2022.01.21-1",
        "2022.02.04-1",
        "2022.03.08.1-1",
        "2022.04.08-1"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ecosystem_specific": {
        "binaries": [
          {
            "binary_name": "yt-dlp",
            "binary_version": "2024.04.09-1"
          }
        ]
      },
      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "Ubuntu:24.04:LTS",
        "name": "yt-dlp",
        "purl": "pkg:deb/ubuntu/yt-dlp@2024.04.09-1?arch=source\u0026distro=noble"
      },
      "ranges": [
        {
          "events": [
            {
              "introduced": "0"
            }
          ],
          "type": "ECOSYSTEM"
        }
      ],
      "versions": [
        "2023.07.06-1",
        "2023.10.13-1ubuntu1",
        "2023.11.16-1",
        "2023.12.30-1ubuntu1",
        "2024.03.10-1",
        "2024.04.09-1"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ecosystem_specific": {
        "binaries": [
          {
            "binary_name": "yt-dlp",
            "binary_version": "2025.09.23-1"
          }
        ]
      },
      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "Ubuntu:25.10",
        "name": "yt-dlp",
        "purl": "pkg:deb/ubuntu/yt-dlp@2025.09.23-1?arch=source\u0026distro=questing"
      },
      "ranges": [
        {
          "events": [
            {
              "introduced": "0"
            }
          ],
          "type": "ECOSYSTEM"
        }
      ],
      "versions": [
        "2025.03.27-1",
        "2025.04.30-1",
        "2025.05.22-1",
        "2025.06.09-1",
        "2025.06.25-1",
        "2025.06.30-1",
        "2025.07.21-1",
        "2025.08.11-1",
        "2025.08.20-1",
        "2025.08.22-1",
        "2025.08.27-1",
        "2025.09.05-1",
        "2025.09.23-1"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ecosystem_specific": {
        "binaries": [
          {
            "binary_name": "yt-dlp",
            "binary_version": "2026.03.17-1"
          }
        ]
      },
      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "Ubuntu:26.04:LTS",
        "name": "yt-dlp",
        "purl": "pkg:deb/ubuntu/yt-dlp@2026.03.17-1?arch=source\u0026distro=resolute"
      },
      "ranges": [
        {
          "events": [
            {
              "introduced": "0"
            }
          ],
          "type": "ECOSYSTEM"
        }
      ],
      "versions": [
        "2025.09.23-1",
        "2025.10.22-1",
        "2025.11.12-1",
        "2025.12.08-1",
        "2026.01.31-1",
        "2026.03.17-1"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "aliases": [],
  "details": "`yt-dlp` and `youtube-dl` are command-line audio/video downloaders. Prior to the fixed versions,\u00a0`yt-dlp` and `youtube-dl` do not limit the extensions of downloaded files, which could lead to arbitrary filenames being created in the download folder (and path traversal on Windows). Since `yt-dlp` and `youtube-dl` also read config from the working directory (and on Windows executables will be executed from the `yt-dlp` or `youtube-dl` directory), this could lead to arbitrary code being executed. `yt-dlp` version 2024.07.01 fixes this issue by whitelisting the allowed extensions. `youtube-dl` fixes this issue in commit `d42a222` on the `master` branch and in nightly builds tagged 2024-07-03 or later. This might mean some very uncommon extensions might not get downloaded, however it will also limit the possible exploitation surface. In addition to upgrading, have `.%(ext)s` at the end of the output template and make sure the user trusts the websites that they are downloading from. Also, make sure to never download to a directory within PATH or other sensitive locations like one\u0027s user directory, `system32`, or other binaries locations. For users who are not able to upgrade, keep the default output template (`-o \"%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`); make sure the extension of the media to download is a common video/audio/sub/... one; try to avoid the generic extractor; and/or use `--ignore-config --config-location ...` to not load config from common locations.",
  "id": "UBUNTU-CVE-2024-38519",
  "modified": "2026-05-20T15:10:04Z",
  "published": "2024-07-02T14:15:00Z",
  "references": [
    {
      "type": "REPORT",
      "url": "https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2024-38519"
    },
    {
      "type": "REPORT",
      "url": "https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-38519"
    },
    {
      "type": "REPORT",
      "url": "https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/security/advisories/GHSA-79w7-vh3h-8g4j"
    },
    {
      "type": "REPORT",
      "url": "https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/5ce582448ececb8d9c30c8c31f58330090ced03a"
    },
    {
      "type": "REPORT",
      "url": "https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/tag/2024.07.01"
    },
    {
      "type": "REPORT",
      "url": "https://securitylab.github.com/advisories/GHSL-2024-090_yt-dlp"
    }
  ],
  "related": [],
  "schema_version": "1.7.0",
  "severity": [
    {
      "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H",
      "type": "CVSS_V3"
    },
    {
      "score": "medium",
      "type": "Ubuntu"
    }
  ],
  "upstream": [
    "CVE-2024-38519"
  ]
}



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