vLLM through 0.29.0 Denial of Service via Incomplete NIXL KV Transfer Metadata
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Attack requirements
- None
- Impact type
- Denial of service
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · None · High
- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 1 fixed, 3 without a fix
Attack profile from CVSS 4.0 · CNA. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat. Impact type from CWE-248.
Summary
vLLM versions through 0.29.0 contain a denial of service vulnerability in the NIXL connector's metadata handling for prefill/decode disaggregated deployments. Attackers can send requests with incomplete kv_transfer_params dictionary entries to trigger an uncaught KeyError in EngineCore scheduling, causing the decode engine to terminate and making all routed requests fail until manual restart.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- 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 | up to 0.29.0 | — | No fix listed | CNA |
- vllm Vendorvllm-project Affected up to 0.29.0 Fixed in — No fix listed CNA
Remediation
Red Hat 1 advisory
- 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
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Important. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat AI Inference Server | Affected | No fix yet |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux AI (RHEL AI) 3 | Affected | No fix yet |
| Red Hat OpenShift AI (RHOAI) | Affected | No fix yet |
| Red Hat OpenShift AI 3.4 | Fixed | RHSA-2026:84734 |
Not affected: 2 products
- Red Hat OpenShift AI (RHOAI)
- Red Hat OpenShift AI 3.4
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-94622
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-4h5x-w852-6g2x
- 2026-10-10 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
- 2026-10-30 EPSS moved to the 50th–90th percentile
References
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-2026-36017 vLLM: OpenAI auth bypass CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.1
- 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
Sources
- CVE-2026-94622 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-94622 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-4h5x-w852-6g2x · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2026-94622 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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