CVE-2023-46121 | Generic Extractor MITM Vulnerability in yt-dlp

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`.

Published: 2023-11-15 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-46121 is rated Low Risk (28.4/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.32%). Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-46121

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 0.10% 0.32% +0.22%
2 2025-11-21 0.18% 0.10% -0.08%
3 2025-11-18 — 0.18% —

Full EPSS history (9 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-46121

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.0 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:L)
Might cause slowdowns, glitches, or partial disruption—not a full brick.
 1.6 3.4 [email protected]
3.7 3.1 LOW
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 2.2 1.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-46121

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2023-46121

GHSA-3ch3-jhc6-5r8x · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: pip — yt-dlp Generic Extractor MITM Vulnerability via Arbitrary Proxy Injection

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-46121

vendor priority summary link
alpine low CVE-2023-46121: 1 source package rows (yt-dlp); 10 state rows across 6 repos (3.18-community, 3.19-community, 3.20-community, 3.21-community, 3.22-community, edge-community); fixed 6, open 4. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2023-46121
debian not yet assigned CVE-2023-46121 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (yt-dlp), 4 status rows across 4 suites (bookworm, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 3, open 1. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-46121
gentoo normal CVE-2023-46121: 1 GLSA(s) (202409-30), 1 atom(s) (net-misc/yt-dlp); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2023-46121
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-46121 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (yt-dlp), 12 status rows across 12 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): ignored 7, needs-triage 4, DNE 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-46121

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-46121

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
yt-dlp_project yt-dlp >= 2022.10.04, < 2023.11.14 cpe:2.3:a:yt-dlp_project:yt-dlp:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-46121

cvelogic Threat Intelligence