vLLM allows clients to crash the openai server with invalid regexGHSA-9hcf-v7m4-6m2j
MEDIUMFix: vllm-project/vllm#17623GHSA-9hcf-v7m4-6m2j is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.5) CWE-248 vulnerability in vllm. A fix is available for vllm — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for GHSA-9hcf-v7m4-6m2j.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
vllmReal-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
Impact
A denial of service bug caused the vLLM server to crash if an invalid regex was provided while using structured output. This vulnerability is similar to GHSA-6qc9-v4r8-22xg, but for regex instead of a JSON schema.
Issue with more details: https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm/issues/17313
Patches
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | vllm | ≥ 0.8.0&&< 0.9.0 | 0.9.0pip install --upgrade 'vllm==0.9.0' |
Affected Products
vllmvllmDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for vllm, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update vllm to 0.9.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-9hcf-v7m4-6m2j 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.
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.
The severity of this vulnerability is rated Moderate, as it does not impact system availability. The effects are confined to the application layer, without compromising the underlying system stability.
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 GHSA-9hcf-v7m4-6m2j (CC BY 4.0)
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-9hcf-v7m4-6m2j in your dependencies?
Find it across PyPI, including transitive dependencies.