GHSA-hf3c-wxg2-49q9 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.5) vulnerability in vllm. A fix is available for vllm — see the affected versions and patch details below.
vLLM vulnerable to Denial of Service by abusing xgrammar cache
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
This report is to highlight a vulnerability in XGrammar, a library used by the structured output feature in vLLM. The XGrammar advisory is here: https://github.com/mlc-ai/xgrammar/security/advisories/GHSA-389x-67px-mjg3
The xgrammar library is the default backend used by vLLM to support structured output (a.k.a. guided decoding). Xgrammar provides a required, built-in cache for its compiled grammars stored in RAM. xgrammar is available by default through the OpenAI compatible API server with both the V0 and V1 engines.
A malicious user can send a stream of very short decoding requests with unique schemas, resulting in an addition to the cache for each request. This can result in a Denial of Service by consuming all of the system's RAM.
Note that even if vLLM was configured to use a different backend by default, it is still possible to choose xgrammar on a per-request basis using the guided_decoding_backend key of the extra_body field of the request with the V0 engine. This per-request choice is not available when using the V1 engine.
Patches
Workarounds
There is no way to workaround this issue in existing versions of vLLM other than preventing untrusted access to the OpenAI compatible API server.
References
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | vllm | ≥ 0.6.5&&< 0.8.4 | 0.8.4pip install --upgrade 'vllm==0.8.4' |
Detection & 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 0.8.4 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-hf3c-wxg2-49q9 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like GHSA-hf3c-wxg2-49q9 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-hf3c-wxg2-49q9. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-hf3c-wxg2-49q9 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-hf3c-wxg2-49q9 across PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.