---
id: CVE-2026-5497
title: >-
  vLLM versions 0.8.0 and later are vulnerable to an Out-of-Memory (OOM) Denial
  of Service (DoS) attack due to unbounded frame count processing in the
  `VideoMediaIO.load_base64()` method
summary: >-
  vLLM versions 0.8.0 and later are vulnerable to an Out-of-Memory (OOM) Denial
  of Service (DoS) attack due to unbounded frame count processing in the
  `VideoMediaIO.load_base64()` method. When processing `video/jpeg` data URLs,
  the method …
severity: high
cvss: 7.5
cvssVector: 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H'
cwe:
  - CWE-400
  - CWE-770
vendor: vllm
product: vllm
affected:
  - 'vllm >= 0.8.0, < 0.19.0'
patched:
  - vllm 0.19.0
published: '2026-06-11'
updated: '2026-07-03'
source: NVD
sourceUrl: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-5497'
references:
  - url: >-
      https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm/commit/58ee61422169ce17e08248f8efa1e9df434fe395
    label: security@huntr.dev
  - url: 'https://huntr.com/bounties/7bd92629-b396-4449-8f88-6c0092530eb4'
    label: security@huntr.dev
  - url: 'https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-5497'
    label: 0b0ca135-0b70-47e7-9f44-1890c2a1c46c
  - url: 'https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2487813'
    label: 0b0ca135-0b70-47e7-9f44-1890c2a1c46c
  - url: 'https://huntr.com/bounties/7bd92629-b396-4449-8f88-6c0092530eb4'
    label: 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0
  - url: >-
      https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2026/cve-2026-5497.json
    label: 0b0ca135-0b70-47e7-9f44-1890c2a1c46c
  - url: 'https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-5497'
  - url: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-5497'
  - url: 'https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:69466'
  - url: 'https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:69467'
  - url: 'https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:69469'
  - url: 'https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:69464'
  - url: 'https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:70965'
  - url: 'https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:70979'
  - url: 'https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:70995'
  - url: 'https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:70969'
tags:
  - nvd
  - csaf
  - vex
  - red-hat
epss: 0.00537
epssPercentile: 0.44184
ingestedAt: '2026-07-03T14:03:37.086Z'
---

## Overview

vLLM versions 0.8.0 and later are vulnerable to an Out-of-Memory (OOM) Denial of Service (DoS) attack due to unbounded frame count processing in the `VideoMediaIO.load_base64()` method. When processing `video/jpeg` data URLs, the method splits the base64 data string on commas to extract individual JPEG frames without enforcing a frame count limit. An attacker can exploit this by crafting a single API request containing thousands of comma-separated base64-encoded JPEG frames in a data URL, causing the server to decode all frames into memory and crash due to excessive memory consumption. This vulnerability is reachable via the OpenAI-compatible chat completions API and does not require authentication.

## Affected

- `vllm >= 0.8.0, < 0.19.0`

## Remediation

Upgrade past the affected range:

- `vllm 0.19.0`

## Vendor advisories

- **RHSA-2026:69466** · Red Hat · fixed in: Red Hat AI Inference Server 3.4 · released 2026-09-21 · [advisory](https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:69466)
- **RHSA-2026:69467** · Red Hat · fixed in: Red Hat AI Inference Server 3.4 · released 2026-09-21 · [advisory](https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:69467)
- **RHSA-2026:69469** · Red Hat · fixed in: Red Hat AI Inference Server 3.4 · released 2026-09-21 · [advisory](https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:69469)
- **RHSA-2026:69464** · Red Hat · fixed in: Red Hat AI Inference Server 3.4 · released 2026-09-21 · [advisory](https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:69464)
- **Red Hat VEX** · Important · affected: Red Hat AI Inference Server, Red Hat Enterprise Linux AI (RHEL AI) 3, Red Hat OpenShift AI (RHOAI) · no fix planned: Red Hat AI Inference Server, Red Hat Enterprise Linux AI (RHEL AI) 3, Red Hat OpenShift AI (RHOAI) · updated 2026-09-24 · [vex](https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2026/cve-2026-5497.json)
- **RHSA-2026:70965** · Red Hat · fixed in: Red Hat AI Inference Server 3.4 · released 2026-09-23 · [advisory](https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:70965)
- **RHSA-2026:70979** · Red Hat · fixed in: Red Hat AI Inference Server 3.4 · released 2026-09-23 · [advisory](https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:70979)
- **RHSA-2026:70995** · Red Hat · fixed in: Red Hat AI Inference Server 3.4 · released 2026-09-23 · [advisory](https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:70995)
- **RHSA-2026:70969** · Red Hat · fixed in: Red Hat AI Inference Server 3.4 · released 2026-09-23 · [advisory](https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:70969)