CVE-2026-44223 MEDIUM

CVE-2026-44223: vLLM: extract_hidden_states speculative decoding crashes server on any request with penalty parameters

Vendor Vllm-Project
Product vllm
Weakness CWE-131
Published May 12, 2026
Last update May 15, 2026

CVSS base score

6.5/10
Attack vector Network
Attack complexity Low
Privileges required Low
User interaction None
Confidentiality None
Integrity None

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

What the vulnerability does

01Description

vLLM is an inference and serving engine for large language models (LLMs). From to before 0.20.0, the extract_hidden_states speculative decoding proposer in vLLM returns a tensor with an incorrect shape after the first decode step, causing a RuntimeError that crashes the EngineCore process. The crash is triggered when any request in the batch uses sampling penalty parameters (repetition_penalty, frequency_penalty, or presence_penalty). A single request with a penalty parameter (e.g., "repetition_penalty": 1.1) is sufficient to crash the server. This vulnerability is fixed in 0.20.0.

Key dates

02Disclosure timeline

May 12, 2026 CVE published
May 15, 2026 Record updated