High

vLLM: ReDoS via structured_outputs.regex compiled without timeout in xgrammar and outlines backends

  • Disclosed: 06.07.2026
  • Updated: 11.10.2026 15:18

Summary

The structured_outputs.regex API parameter passes a user-supplied regex string directly to grammar compiler backends with no compilation timeout. In the xgrammar backend, the string reaches compile_regex() with no guard. In the outlines backend, validate_regex_is_buildable() blocks structural issues (lookarounds, backreferences) but provides zero protection against exponential DFA state-space explosion. Patterns like (a+)+b pass all checks and hang the inference worker.

Root Cause

backend_xgrammar.py:91 — no timeout:

python
ctx = self.compiler.compile_regex(grammar_spec)

backend_outlines.py:299–330 — structural checks only, no complexity analysis:

python
def validate_regex_is_buildable(regex: str) -> None:
    sre_parse.parse(regex)   # AST parse only — does not detect exponential patterns
    _check_unsupported(...)  # blocks lookarounds/backrefs, not nested quantifiers

backend_outlines.py:64 — no timeout:

python
oc.Index(regex_string, vocabulary.inner)

Impact

Denial of service — one request with an adversarial regex pattern hangs an inference worker indefinitely.

Remediation

Wrap compile_regex() and oc.Index() calls in a thread with a deadline (e.g., 5 seconds). Add complexity analysis to validate_regex_is_buildable() to detect nested quantifier patterns before compilation.

Affected software

Click a technology to see all vulnerabilities affecting it.

PlatformPackageVulnerable versionsFixed in
Python (PyPI) vllm < 0.24.0 0.24.0

References

CVSS score 7.5/10
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Weakness (CWE)
CWE-1333
Platform
Python (PyPI)
Package
vllm
Disclosed
06.07.2026
Updated
11.10.2026 15:18

Sources and licenses

OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - PYSEC-2026-2304 - PyPA Advisory Database; CC BY 4.0

OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - GHSA-rwxx-mrjm-wc2m - CC BY 4.0

Vulnerability history: vllm

All published vulnerabilities of this package (Python (PyPI)), newest first. Shows whether this is a one-off slip or a package that needs watching.

All (94) in the archive
Total entries
94
First → latest
09.2024 10.2026
Without a fix
5
Exploited in attacks
0

Severity breakdown

  • Critical 9
  • High 23
  • Medium 47
  • Low 4
  • Unrated 11

Disclosures per year

  1. 2024: 2
  2. 2025: 30
  3. 2026: 62
Severity:
  1. High · 7.5 CVE-2026-54234 >= 0.17.1, < 0.24.0 0.24.0
  2. vLLM: ReDoS via structured_outputs.regex compiled without timeout in xgrammar and outlines backends this entry
    High · 7.5 CVE-2026-55574 < 0.24.0 0.24.0
  3. High CVE-2026-55514 >= 0.12.0, < 0.24.0 0.24.0
  4. Critical · 9.1 CVE-2026-48746 >= 0.3.0, < 0.22.0 0.22.0
  5. Critical · 9.8 CVE-2026-22778 >= 0.8.3, < 0.14.1 0.14.1
  6. High · 8.8 CVE-2026-22807 >= 0.10.1, < 0.14.0 0.14.0
  7. High · 8.8 CVE-2026-56340 >= 0.10.2, < 0.13.0 0.13.0
  8. High · 6.5 CVE-2025-62372 >= 0.5.5, < 0.11.1 0.11.1
  9. High · 8.8 CVE-2025-62164 >= 0.10.2, < 0.11.1 0.11.1
  10. High · 7.5 CVE-2025-59425 < 0.11.0 0.11.0
  11. High · 8.8 CVE-2025-9141 >= 0.10.0, < 0.10.1.1 0.10.1.1
Show more (12) Showing 20 of 32

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