vllm API endpoints vulnerable to Denial of Service Attacks

Summary

A Denial of Service (DoS) vulnerability can be triggered by sending a single HTTP GET request with an extremely large header to an HTTP endpoint. This results in server memory exhaustion, potentially leading to a crash or unresponsiveness. The attack does not require authentication, making it exploitable by any remote user.

Details

The vulnerability leverages the abuse of HTTP headers. By setting a header such as X-Forwarded-For to a very large value like ("A" * 5_800_000_000), the server's HTTP parser or application logic may attempt to load the entire request into memory, overwhelming system resources.

Impact

What kind of vulnerability is it? Who is impacted? Type of vulnerability: Denial of Service (DoS)

Resolution

Upgrade to a version of vLLM that includes appropriate HTTP limits by deafult, or use a proxy in front of vLLM which provides protection against this issue.