CVE-2026-54232
Description
A flaw was found in vLLM, an inference and serving engine for large language models (LLMs). This vulnerability, a dependency confusion attack, allows a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code with root privileges during the Docker build process. By exploiting this, an attacker can compromise the resulting container image, leading to the exfiltration of sensitive information like user prompts, API credentials, and model data from production vLLM deployments.
Statement
CVE-2026-54232 is a build-time dependency confusion issue in upstream vLLM Dockerfiles before 0.22.1. It does not allow remote exploitation of a running vLLM inference service. Red Hat OpenShift AI is not affected. Red Hat AI Inference Server and RHEL AI CUDA images that include flashinfer-jit-cache are in scope for build-process review, but Red Hat has no evidence that shipped images were compromised. Red Hat rates this Moderate for affected products.
Mitigation
Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options do not meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base, or stability.
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 | 5.7 | N/A | 8.8 |
| Attack Vector | Network | N/A | Network |
| Attack Complexity | High | N/A | Low |
| Privileges Required | High | N/A | None |
| User Interaction | Required | N/A | Required |
| Scope | Unchanged | N/A | Unchanged |
| Confidentiality | High | N/A | High |
| Integrity Impact | High | N/A | High |
| Availability Impact | None | N/A | High |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
cve.org: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Integrity,Confidentiality,Availability,Access Control
Technical Impact: Gain Privileges or Assume Identity; Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands
There is the potential for arbitrary code execution with privileges of the vulnerable program.
Availability
Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart
The program could be redirected to the wrong files, potentially triggering a crash or hang when the targeted file is too large or does not have the expected format.
Confidentiality
Technical Impact: Read Files or Directories
The program could send the output of unauthorized files to the attacker.
Frequently Asked Questions
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