CVE-2026-49468
Description
A flaw was found in LiteLLM, a proxy server (AI Gateway) used to call Large Language Model (LLM) APIs. A remote attacker could exploit a Host-header parsing vulnerability in the proxy authentication layer. By sending a crafted Host header, an attacker could gain unauthenticated access to protected management routes, potentially leading to full system compromise.
Statement
The vulnerability is rated with Important severity due to the limited attack surface in our default deployment configuration.
While the affected images ship with a vulnerable version of litellm, the specific vulnerability is restricted solely to proxy management-route authentication. By default, these images do not start the LiteLLM proxy server. Instead, the default entrypoints are configured to run OGX, the MLflow server (with the AI Gateway disabled), Garak evaluation jobs, or Lightspeed/Llama Stack APIs. The proxy auth bypass is not reachable unless an administrator separately deploys litellm --config from the container.
For Red Hat OpenShift AI and Ansible Automation Platform products, the severity has been set to low since these products include litellm as a dependency in some images but do not run the LiteLLM proxy in default configurations, hence the vulnerable code path is not exposed.
Mitigation
To mitigate the risk of unauthenticated access, restrict network access to the LiteLLM proxy's management routes. Configure network firewalls or security groups to permit inbound connections only from trusted internal networks. This operational control limits the exposure of vulnerable endpoints to unauthorized external access. If the LiteLLM proxy is deployed behind a load balancer or API gateway, ensure these components are configured to strictly validate and sanitize the HTTP Host header before forwarding requests.
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
The following CVSS metrics and score provided are preliminary and subject to review.
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 8.1 | 9.8 | 8.1 |
| Attack Vector | Network | Network | Network |
| Attack Complexity | High | Low | High |
| Privileges Required | None | None | None |
| User Interaction | None | None | None |
| Scope | Unchanged | Unchanged | Unchanged |
| Confidentiality | High | High | High |
| Integrity Impact | High | High | High |
| Availability Impact | High | High | High |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
cve.org: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Access Control
Technical Impact: Bypass Protection Mechanism; Gain Privileges or Assume Identity
This weakness can allow an attacker to access resources which are not otherwise accessible without proper authentication.
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