CVE-2026-94623: vLLM through 0.29.0 Denial of Service via NIXL Multi-Prompt Assertion Failure
Vulnerability summary
CVE-2026-94623 is a high (CVSS 8.7) Reachable Assertion vulnerability in vllm-project vllm. EPSS estimates a 0.63% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 49.3% of scored vulnerabilities.
Timeline
- 21-09-2026PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
- 22-09-2026Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.
Description
vLLM through 0.29.0 contains a denial of service vulnerability in the NIXL connector's prefix caching implementation that fails to properly validate block counts across multi-prompt completion requests in prefill/decode disaggregated deployments. Attackers can trigger an assertion failure in NixlBaseConnectorWorker._apply_prefix_caching by submitting completion requests with multiple prompts of varying lengths, causing the decode worker to terminate and become unavailable until restarted.
CVSS metrics
5 scores · 3 sources · 2 versions- OSV · PypiEcosystem advisory · calculated8.7HighCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
- NVDNIST8.7HighCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
- NVDNIST7.5HighCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS trend
Probability
0.63%
Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days
Percentile
49%
Versus all other CVEs
30-day change
Increase +0.18 pp
From 0.45% on 22-09-2026
Known exploited
Compare KEV catalogs
CISA KEVNot in the CISA KEV catalog.
ENISA CNWNot in the ENISA CNW catalog.
CIRCLNot in the CIRCL catalog.
Public exploits
0 foundNo public exploits indexed.
Weaknesses
CWE · root causeAffected systems
3 vendors · 3 products