vLLM Remote Code Execution via Mooncake Integration (CVE-2025-32444)
vLLM contains a critical remote code execution vulnerability in its Mooncake integration due to unsafe pickle deserialization over exposed ZeroMQ sockets. The vulnerability affects versions 0.6.5 and later and was patched in version 0.8.5.
What happened
vLLM versions 0.6.5 and later are vulnerable to remote code execution via the Mooncake integration. The vulnerability exists in vllm/distributed/kv_transfer/kv_pipe/mooncake_pipe.py where recv_pyobj() contains implicit pickle.loads(), which can deserialize untrusted data. The vulnerable ZeroMQ sockets listen on all network interfaces without authentication controls, allowing attackers to send malicious payloads over the network.
Reported impact
The vulnerability allows remote code execution on distributed hosts that use Mooncake to distribute KV cache across distributed environments. Any vLLM deployments using Mooncake to distribute KV across distributed hosts are impacted by this vulnerability.
Index analysis
The issue is similar to a prior Mooncake integration vulnerability (GHSA-x3m8-f7g5-qhm7) also involving unsafe pickle deserialization over exposed ZeroMQ sockets. vLLM instances that do not make use of the Mooncake integration are not vulnerable.
Governance controls
The vulnerability was patched in vLLM v0.8.5, addressing affected versions 0.6.5 and later.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.