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Luu, T.J.

GHSA-q8gq-377p-jq3r: vLLM: Security Check Bypass via assert Statement in Activation Function Loading Allows Arbitrary Code Execution

highvulnerability

security

Source: Hugging Face Security AdvisoriesJune 16, 2026CVE-2026-41523

Summary

vLLM has a security vulnerability where an `assert` statement (a line of code that checks a condition) used to restrict which activation functions can be loaded is removed when Python runs in optimized mode, allowing attackers to publish malicious models on HuggingFace that execute arbitrary code when loaded.

Solution / Mitigation

Replace the `assert` with an explicit conditional raise. The source provides this fix: `if not function_name.startswith("torch.nn.modules."): raise ValueError("Loading of activation functions is restricted to torch.nn.modules for security reasons")`