Security Digest · Vulnerability record
CVE-2025-29783: vLLM Allows Remote Code Execution via Mooncake Integration
vLLM is a high-throughput and memory-efficient inference and serving engine for LLMs.
CVSS 9.1 Critical EPSS 0.7% · p54
Should you act?
Critical, preconditions apply
Severe if exploited, but exploitation needs conditions that may not apply to you. This signal is computed from CISA KEV, EPSS and CVSS data; it is not an editorial verdict.
- No confirmed exploitation. It is not in CISA’s KEV catalog and CISA’s SSVC assessment records no known exploitation. That can change quickly after a public write-up; re-check if you are affected.
- EPSS 0.7%, percentile 54: FIRST’s model estimates a 0.7% chance of exploitation activity in the next 30 days, higher than 54% of all scored CVEs (moderate). EPSS is a probability, not a verdict.
- Needs an account (low (any account)). Exposure depends on who can log in.
- Only applies if your dependency tree includes
vllm(PyPI) >= 0.6.5, < 0.8.0, fixed in 0.8.0. Check your lockfile, including transitive dependencies.
What it is
vLLM is a high-throughput and memory-efficient inference and serving engine for LLMs. When vLLM is configured to use Mooncake, unsafe deserialization exposed directly over ZMQ/TCP on all network interfaces will allow attackers to execute remote code on distributed hosts. This is a remote code execution vulnerability impacting any deployments using Mooncake to distribute KV across distributed hosts. This vulnerability is fixed in 0.8.0.
From the GitHub advisory
Summary When vLLM is configured to use Mooncake, unsafe deserialization exposed directly over ZMQ/TCP will allow attackers to execute remote code on distributed hosts.
Details 1. Pickle deserialization vulnerabilities are well documented. 2. The mooncake pipe is exposed over the network (by design to enable disaggregated prefilling across distributed environments) using ZMQ over TCP, greatly increasing exploitability. ~~Further, the mooncake integration opens these sockets listening on all interfaces on the host, meaning it can not be configured to only use a private, trusted network.~~
Only sendersocket and receiverack are allowed to be accessed publicly, while the data actually decompressed by pickle.loads() comes from recvbytes. Its interface is defined as self.receiversocket.connect(f\"tcp://{dhost}:{drankoffset + 1}\"), where dhost is decodehost, a locally defined address 192.168.0.139,from mooncake.json (https://github.com/kvcache-ai/Mooncake/blob/main/doc/en/vllm-integration-v0.2.md?plain=1#L36).
3. The root problem is recvtensor() calls recvimpl which passes the raw network bytes to pickle.loads(). Additionally, it does not appear that there are any controls (network, authentication, etc) to prevent arbitrary users from sending this payload to the affected service.
Impact This is a remote code execution vulnerability impacting any deployments using Mooncake to distribute KV across distributed hosts.
Weakness type: CWE-502.
Product: vllm (PyPI) · Assigned by: GitHub_M · Published: 2025-03-19
Affected and fixed versions
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable | First fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| PyPI | vllm | >= 0.6.5, < 0.8.0 | 0.8.0 |
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions (per CVE record) |
|---|---|---|
| vllm-project | vllm | >= 0.6.5, < 0.8.0 |
Severity scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub_M | 3.1 | 9.1 Critical | CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H |
| GitHub | 3.1 | 9.0 | CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H |
- Attack vector: adjacent network only
- Attack complexity: low
- Privileges required: low (any account)
- User interaction: none
- Scope: changed (can affect other components)
CVSS measures how bad a flaw is if exploited, not how likely exploitation is. Read it next to the exploitation data below.
Exploitation and urgency
- CISA KEV: not listed (no confirmed in-the-wild exploitation known to CISA).
- CISA SSVC assessment: exploitation none, automatable yes, technical impact total.
- FIRST EPSS (model of 2026-10-21): 0.73% probability of exploitation activity in the next 30 days; percentile 54.
Timeline
- — CVE record published by GitHub_M
- — GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-x3m8-f7g5-qhm7 published (critical)
- — CVE record last updated
Sources and references
Original sources first. Version and fix details should always be confirmed against the vendor or project advisory.
Vulnerability records
- GitHub Advisory GHSA-x3m8-f7g5-qhm7 github.com
- CVE.org record CVE-2025-29783 cve.org
- NVD entry CVE-2025-29783 nvd.nist.gov
Other references from the CVE record and advisory
- github.com github.com
- github.com github.com
- github.com github.com
- github.com github.com