CVE-2025-59425: vLLM API key validation vulnerable to timing attack

Summary

CVE-2025-59425 affects vLLM, an inference and serving engine for large language models, before version 0.11.0rc2. Its API key validation uses a string comparison that takes longer the more characters of the key are correct. Across many attempts, an attacker could use this timing difference to recover the key character by character and bypass authentication on deployments that rely on the built-in validation.

Mitigation

Version 0.11.0rc2 fixes the issue.

Affected packages in the Exposure Registry

Matched by package name and ecosystem. Each entry shows whether the package delegates to a language model and how many tracked packages depend on it.

• vllmPyPILLM dependency since 2023-08-25 · 15 tracked dependents

Topics

• Inference infrastructure

Related items

• MediumCVE-2026-121936: easyVoice server-side request forgery through openaiBaseUrl in /api/v1/ttsSimilar attack · NVD/CVE Database
• MediumCVE-2026-118628: MLflow get-artifacts server-side request forgery information disclosureSimilar attack · NVD/CVE Database
• HighCVE-2026-118625: MLflow Tracking Server privilege escalation via get_endpointsSimilar attack · NVD/CVE Database
• InfoWhen trust becomes the payload: Inside the threats, etc quarterly reportSimilar attack · Elastic Security Labs
• MediumCritical Langflow flaws enable authentication bypass and RCESimilar attack · CSO Online