A high-severity vulnerability in yt-dlp tracked as CVE-2026-50574 allows arbitrary code execution when the tool uses aria2c as an external downloader for fragmented manifest formats including HLS and DASH. The flaw stems from insufficient sanitization of input passed to aria2c, enabling arbitrary file write; on Windows, that can lead to immediate code execution, while on non-Windows systems it can trigger code execution during a later yt-dlp run.
The advisory describes two attack paths: option injection through DASH manifest fragment URLs containing HTML-escaped newlines, and malicious metadata fields used with the --no-windows-filename option to inject arbitrary URIs and downloader options. The issue affects yt-dlp versions prior to 2026.06.09 and was fixed in 2026.06.09 by removing support for downloading fragmented manifest formats with aria2c; users that cannot upgrade are advised to force native downloaders instead of aria2c for DASH and M3U8 content.

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The yt-dlp arbitrary code execution vulnerability involving aria2c manifest downloads was assigned CVE-2026-50574. The CVE record describes exploitation via insufficiently sanitized input in HLS and DASH handling and notes the fix in version 2026.06.09.
yt-dlp version 2026.06.09 fixed a vulnerability in how fragmented manifest downloads were passed to aria2c, removing support for downloading HLS and DASH manifests with aria2c. The issue could enable arbitrary file write and lead to code execution, and affects versions prior to 2026.06.09.
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