Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-26331

high Nessus Plugin ID 299954

Synopsis

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed with a vulnerability that the vendor indicates will not be patched.

Description

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied patch available.

- yt-dlp is a command-line audio/video downloader. Starting in version 2023.06.21 and prior to version 2026.02.21, when yt-dlp's `--netrc-cmd` command-line option (or `netrc_cmd` Python API parameter) is used, an attacker could achieve arbitrary command injection on the user's system with a maliciously crafted URL.
yt-dlp maintainers assume the impact of this vulnerability to be high for anyone who uses `--netrc-cmd` in their command/configuration or `netrc_cmd` in their Python scripts. Even though the maliciously crafted URL itself will look very suspicious to many users, it would be trivial for a maliciously crafted webpage with an inconspicuous URL to covertly exploit this vulnerability via HTTP redirect. Users without `--netrc-cmd` in their arguments or `netrc_cmd` in their scripts are unaffected. No evidence has been found of this exploit being used in the wild. yt-dlp version 2026.02.21 fixes this issue by validating all netrc machine values and raising an error upon unexpected input. As a workaround, users who are unable to upgrade should avoid using the `--netrc-cmd` command-line option (or `netrc_cmd` Python API parameter), or they should at least not pass a placeholder (`{}`) in their `--netrc-cmd` argument. (CVE-2026-26331)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.

Solution

There is no known solution at this time.

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 299954

File Name: unpatched_CVE_2026_26331.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: local

Agent: unix

Family: Misc.

Published: 2/25/2026

Updated: 2/25/2026

Supported Sensors: Nessus Agent, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 6.7

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 8.3

Temporal Score: 7.5

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:C

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2026-26331

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 8.8

Temporal Score: 8.3

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:P/RL:U/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:25.10, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:24.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:yt-dlp, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:22.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:yt-dlp, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:13.0

Required KB Items: Host/cpu, Host/local_checks_enabled, global_settings/vendor_unpatched, Host/OS/identifier

Exploit Available: true

Exploit Ease: Exploits are available

Vulnerability Publication Date: 2/23/2026

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2026-26331

Detections

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