vLLM: OpenAI auth bypass
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- High · None · High
- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 10 fixed, 6 without a fix
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA, GitHub and Red Hat.
Summary
vLLM is an inference and serving engine for large language models (LLMs). From 0.3.0 until 0.22.0, a vulnerability in ASGI web servers and starlette's trust on those web servers enables an authentication bypass of the OpenAI API AuthenticationMiddleware. It allows to use the API without providing the configured VLLM_API_KEY or --api-key. This vulnerability is fixed in 0.22.0.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- Poc
- Automatable
- Yes
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vllm-project | vllm | 0.3.0 to before 0.22.0 | 0.22.0 | Patch available | CNA |
| — | vllm (PyPI) | 0.3.0 to before 0.22.0 | 0.22.0 | Patch available | GHSA-94f4-hr76-p5j6 |
- vllm Vendorvllm-project Affected 0.3.0 to before 0.22.0 Fixed in 0.22.0 Patch available CNA
- vllm (PyPI) Vendor— Affected 0.3.0 to before 0.22.0 Fixed in 0.22.0 Patch available GHSA-94f4-hr76-p5j6
Remediation
- Fix · CNA vllm (vllm-project) Fixed in 0.22.0
- Fix · GHSA-94f4-hr76-p5j6 vllm (PyPI) Fixed in 0.22.0 Advisory →
Red Hat 23 advisories
- RHSA-2026:87410 Released 2026-10-21 · Red Hat rating CriticalRHOAI 2.25.12 - Red Hat OpenShift AI
- Red Hat OpenShift AI 2.25 registry.redhat.io/rhoai/odh-built-in-detector-rhel9, registry.redhat.io/rhoai/odh-caikit-nlp-rhel9, registry.redhat.io/rhoai/odh-codeflare-operator-rhel9 +47
- RHSA-2026:84734 Released 2026-10-19 · Red Hat rating CriticalRHOAI 3.4.5 - Red Hat OpenShift AI
- Red Hat OpenShift AI 3.4 registry.redhat.io/rhoai/odh-ai-gateway-payload-processing-rhel9, registry.redhat.io/rhoai/odh-automl-rhel9, registry.redhat.io/rhoai/odh-autorag-rhel9 +47
- RHSA-2026:76150 Released 2026-10-05 · Red Hat rating ImportantRed Hat Enterprise Linux AI 3.4.5 security update
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux AI 3.4 registry.redhat.io/rhelai3/bootc-aws-cuda-rhel9, registry.redhat.io/rhelai3/bootc-azure-cuda-rhel9, registry.redhat.io/rhelai3/bootc-azure-rocm-rhel9 +3
Show 20 more Red Hat advisories
- RHSA-2026:76149 Released 2026-10-05 · Red Hat rating ImportantRed Hat Enterprise Linux AI 3.4.5 security update
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux AI 3.4 registry.redhat.io/rhelai3/disk-image-cuda-rhel9
- RHSA-2026:73987 Released 2026-09-30 · Red Hat rating CriticalRHOAI 3.3.7 - Red Hat OpenShift AI
- Red Hat OpenShift AI 3.3 registry.redhat.io/rhoai/odh-built-in-detector-rhel9, registry.redhat.io/rhoai/odh-dashboard-rhel9, registry.redhat.io/rhoai/odh-data-science-pipelines-argo-argoexec-rhel9 +47
- RHSA-2026:70995 Released 2026-09-23 · Red Hat rating ImportantRed Hat AI Inference 3.4.5 (rocm)
- Red Hat AI Inference Server 3.4 registry.redhat.io/rhaii/vllm-rocm-rhel9
- RHSA-2026:70979 Released 2026-09-23 · Red Hat rating ImportantRed Hat AI Inference 3.4.5 (cuda)
- Red Hat AI Inference Server 3.4 registry.redhat.io/rhaii/vllm-cuda-rhel9
- RHSA-2026:70969 Released 2026-09-23 · Red Hat rating ImportantRed Hat AI Inference 3.4.5 (spyre)
- Red Hat AI Inference Server 3.4 registry.redhat.io/rhaii/vllm-spyre-rhel9
- RHSA-2026:70965 Released 2026-09-23 · Red Hat rating ImportantRed Hat AI Inference 3.4.5 (cpu)
- Red Hat AI Inference Server 3.4 registry.redhat.io/rhaii/vllm-cpu-rhel9
- RHSA-2026:69469 Released 2026-09-21 · Red Hat rating ImportantRed Hat AI Inference 3.4.5 (rocm)
- Red Hat AI Inference Server 3.4 registry.redhat.io/rhaii/vllm-rocm-rhel9
- RHSA-2026:69467 Released 2026-09-21 · Red Hat rating ImportantRed Hat AI Inference 3.4.5 (cuda)
- Red Hat AI Inference Server 3.4 registry.redhat.io/rhaii/vllm-cuda-rhel9
- RHSA-2026:69466 Released 2026-09-21 · Red Hat rating ImportantRed Hat AI Inference 3.4.5 (cpu)
- Red Hat AI Inference Server 3.4 registry.redhat.io/rhaii/vllm-cpu-rhel9
- RHSA-2026:69464 Released 2026-09-21 · Red Hat rating ImportantRed Hat AI Inference 3.4.5 (spyre)
- Red Hat AI Inference Server 3.4 registry.redhat.io/rhaii/vllm-spyre-rhel9
- RHSA-2026:61629 Released 2026-08-31 · Red Hat rating ImportantRed Hat AI Inference Server 3.2.2 (ROCm)
- Red Hat AI Inference Server 3.2 registry.redhat.io/rhaiis/vllm-rocm-rhel9
- RHSA-2026:61627 Released 2026-08-31 · Red Hat rating ImportantRed Hat AI Inference Server 3.2.2 (CUDA)
- Red Hat AI Inference Server 3.2 registry.redhat.io/rhaiis/vllm-cuda-rhel9
- RHSA-2026:43038 Released 2026-07-21 · Red Hat rating CriticalMigration Toolkit for Applications
- Red Hat Migration Toolkit for Applications 8.2 registry.redhat.io/mta/mta-cli-rhel9, registry.redhat.io/mta/mta-solution-server-rhel9
- RHSA-2026:42644 Released 2026-07-21 · Red Hat rating ImportantRHOAI 2.25.9 - Red Hat OpenShift AI
- Red Hat OpenShift AI 2.25 registry.redhat.io/rhoai/odh-caikit-tgis-serving-rhel9, registry.redhat.io/rhoai/odh-feature-server-rhel9, registry.redhat.io/rhoai/odh-kserve-storage-initializer-rhel9 +36
- RHSA-2026:42142 Released 2026-07-20 · Red Hat rating ImportantRed Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.7 Container Release Update
- Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.7 registry.redhat.io/ansible-automation-platform-27/gateway-rhel9, registry.redhat.io/ansible-automation-platform-27/hub-rhel9, registry.redhat.io/ansible-automation-platform-27/lightspeed-chatbot-rhel9 +3
- RHSA-2026:42132 Released 2026-07-20 · Red Hat rating ImportantRed Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.6 Container Release Update
- Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.6 registry.redhat.io/ansible-automation-platform-26/controller-rhel9, registry.redhat.io/ansible-automation-platform-26/de-minimal-rhel9, registry.redhat.io/ansible-automation-platform-26/de-supported-rhel9 +7
- RHSA-2026:36006 Released 2026-07-06 · Red Hat rating ImportantRed Hat AI Inference Server 3.2.2 (ROCm)
- Red Hat AI Inference Server 3.2 registry.redhat.io/rhaiis/vllm-rocm-rhel9
- RHSA-2026:36005 Released 2026-07-06 · Red Hat rating ImportantRed Hat AI Inference Server 3.2.2 (CUDA)
- Red Hat AI Inference Server 3.2 registry.redhat.io/rhaiis/vllm-cuda-rhel9
- RHSA-2026:30089 Released 2026-06-25 · Red Hat rating CriticalRed Hat AI Inference Server 3.3.5 (CUDA)
- Red Hat AI Inference Server 3.3 registry.redhat.io/rhaiis/vllm-cuda-rhel9
- RHSA-2026:30088 Released 2026-06-25 · Red Hat rating CriticalRed Hat AI Inference Server 3.3.5 (ROCm)
- Red Hat AI Inference Server 3.3 registry.redhat.io/rhaiis/vllm-rocm-rhel9
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Important. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Exploit Intelligence | Affected | No fix yet |
| OpenShift Lightspeed | Affected | No fix yet |
| Red Hat AI Inference Server | Affected | No fix yet |
| Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2 | Affected | No fix planned: Will not fix |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux AI (RHEL AI) 3 | Affected | No fix planned: Will not fix |
| Red Hat OpenShift AI (RHOAI) | Affected | No fix yet |
| Red Hat AI Inference Server 3.2 | Fixed | RHSA-2026:36005, RHSA-2026:36006, RHSA-2026:61627, RHSA-2026:61629 |
| Red Hat AI Inference Server 3.3 | Fixed | RHSA-2026:30088, RHSA-2026:30089 |
| Red Hat AI Inference Server 3.4 | Fixed | RHSA-2026:69464, RHSA-2026:69466, RHSA-2026:69467, RHSA-2026:69469, RHSA-2026:70965, RHSA-2026:70969, RHSA-2026:70979, RHSA-2026:70995 |
| Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.6 | Fixed | RHSA-2026:42132 |
| Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.7 | Fixed | RHSA-2026:42142 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux AI 3.4 | Fixed | RHSA-2026:76149, RHSA-2026:76150 |
| Red Hat Migration Toolkit for Applications 8.2 | Fixed | RHSA-2026:43038 |
| Red Hat OpenShift AI 2.25 | Fixed | RHSA-2026:42644, RHSA-2026:87410 |
| Red Hat OpenShift AI 3.3 | Fixed | RHSA-2026:73987 |
| Red Hat OpenShift AI 3.4 | Fixed | RHSA-2026:84734 |
Not affected: 10 products
- OpenShift Lightspeed
- Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.6
- Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.7
- Red Hat Hardened Images
- Red Hat Migration Toolkit for Applications 8.2
- Red Hat OpenShift AI (RHOAI)
- Red Hat OpenShift AI 2.25
- Red Hat OpenShift AI 3.3
- Red Hat OpenShift AI 3.4
- Red Hat Satellite 6
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-48746
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-94f4-hr76-p5j6
- 2026-10-06 Fix available: RHSA-2026:76149 · Red Hat
- 2026-10-06 Fix available: RHSA-2026:76150 · Red Hat
- 2026-10-06 Fix available: Red Hat Enterprise Linux AI 3.4 · Red Hat
- 2026-10-07 Fix available: RHSA-2026:73987 · Red Hat
- 2026-10-07 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
- 2026-10-09 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
- 2026-10-20 Fix available: RHSA-2026:84734 · Red Hat
- 2026-10-20 Fix available: Red Hat OpenShift AI 3.4 · Red Hat
- 2026-10-22 Fix available: RHSA-2026:87410 · Red Hat
- 2026-10-23 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
- 2026-11-06 Fix available: RHSA-2026:42644 · Red Hat
References
Advisory 3
Other 16
- https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm/pull/43426
- https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2026/cve-2026-48746.json
- https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm
- https://github.com/pypa/advisory-database/tree/main/vulns/vllm/PYSEC-2026-226.yaml
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2491581
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-48746
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:61629
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:61627
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:43038
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:42644
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:42142
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:42132
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:36006
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:36005
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:30089
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:30088
More vllm-project vulnerabilities
- TI-2024-10229 Remote Code Execution in vllm-project/vllm CVSS 3.0CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2024-08404 Remote Code Execution in vllm-project/vllm CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2026-63056 vLLM before 0.28.0 Denial of Service via negative token ID CVSS 4.0HIGH 8.7
- TI-2026-04308 Hardcoded trust_remote_code=True in vllm-project/vllm Bypasses User Security Control CVSS 3.0HIGH 8.8
- TI-2026-39137 vLLM: Remote DoS in vLLM via Invalid Recovered Token Reinjection CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
- TI-2026-04816 Unbounded Frame Count in video/jpeg Base64 Data URL Processing Leads to OOM DoS in vllm-project/vllm CVSS 3.0HIGH 7.5
Sources
- CVE-2026-48746 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-48746 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-94f4-hr76-p5j6 · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2026-48746 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences