A vulnerability in huggingface/text-generation-inference version 3.3.6 allows unauthenticated remote attackers to exploit unbounded external image fetching during input validation in VLM mode. The issue arises when the router scans inputs for Markdown image links and performs a blocking HTTP GET request, reading the entire response body into memory and cloning it before decoding. This behavior can lead to resource exhaustion, including network bandwidth saturation, memory inflation, and CPU overutilization. The vulnerability is triggered even if the request is later rejected for exceeding token limits. The default deployment configuration, which lacks memory usage limits and authentication, exacerbates the impact, potentially crashing the host machine. The issue is resolved in version 3.3.7.
Weakness
The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.
Potential Mitigations
Mitigation of resource exhaustion attacks requires that the target system either:
The first of these solutions is an issue in itself though, since it may allow attackers to prevent the use of the system by a particular valid user. If the attacker impersonates the valid user, they may be able to prevent the user from accessing the server in question.
The second solution is simply difficult to effectively institute – and even when properly done, it does not provide a full solution. It simply makes the attack require more resources on the part of the attacker.
Related Attack Patterns
- https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/147.html
- https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/227.html
- https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/492.html