CVE-2024-12704 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) CWE-835 vulnerability in llama-index-core. A fix is available for llama-index-core — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Denial of Service (DoS) in run-llama/llama_index
Exploitation Status
Proof-of-concept exploit code exists
- CISA’s SSVC triage found public proof-of-concept exploit code for this CVE, though no confirmed active exploitation.
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2024-12704.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2024-12704 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 379,145 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
llama-index-coreReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects PyPI packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
A vulnerability in the LangChainLLM class of the run-llama/llama_index repository, version v0.12.5, allows for a Denial of Service (DoS) attack. The stream_complete method executes the llm using a thread and retrieves the result via the get_response_gen method of the StreamingGeneratorCallbackHandler class. If the thread terminates abnormally before the _llm.predict is executed, there is no exception handling for this case, leading to an infinite loop in the get_response_gen function. This can be triggered by providing an input of an incorrect type, causing the thread to terminate and the process to continue running indefinitely.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | llama-index-core | all versions | 0.12.6pip install --upgrade 'llama-index-core==0.12.6' |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for llama-index-core, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update llama-index-core to 0.12.6 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-12704 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Cap what an attacker can consume: apply request size, rate and timeout limits in front of the affected component, and run it with memory and CPU limits so exhaustion degrades one worker rather than the whole service.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2024-12704 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2024-12704. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
This vulnerability marked as high severity rather than moderate due to its potential to cause a complete Denial of Service (DoS) in affected applications. This flaw can be triggered trivially by supplying an invalid input type. Since there is no exception handling when the prediction thread terminates prematurely, the…
Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options do not meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base or stability.Source: Red Hat security advisory for CVE-2024-12704 (CC BY 4.0)
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2024-12704 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2024-12704 across PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.