Bug 2489786 (CVE-2026-12491)

Summary: CVE-2026-12491 vllm: vllm: image EXIF Rotation & PNG tRNS Transparency Not Normalized, Causing Mismatch Between Model Input and Expectations
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security <prodsec-ir-bot>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: unspecifiedCC: alinfoot, bbrownin, dtrifiro, jkoehler, lphiri, rbryant, weaton
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
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Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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A flaw was found in vLLM, an open-source library for large language model inference. This vulnerability arises from improper handling of image metadata, specifically EXIF orientation and PNG transparency (tRNS) data, during image processing. When images are converted to RGB, transparency information may be implicitly discarded or remapped, leading to unexpected rendering of transparent pixels and distortion of input content. This can result in the model misinterpreting image content, potentially affecting the integrity of processed data.
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-06-17 09:14:08 UTC
EXIF orientation not normalized: The image orientation processed by the model differs from how humans view it, introducing interpretation bias.

PNG tRNS not explicitly flattened before converting to RGB: After conversion, transparent/semi-transparent pixels are rendered unexpectedly, making otherwise subtle overlay elements visible and distorting the input content. (This attack is similar to AlphaDog: RGBA handling is already correct in vLLM, but since tRNS permits RGB images, the correct processing path isn't taken.)

Pillow only loads the first frame when loading APNG or GIF files.

Root cause:
- Rotation: After opening an image, ImageOps.exif_transpose is not called to normalize EXIF orientation.
- Transparency: Only RGBA to RGB is flattened with a background; PNGs carrying tRNS in P/L/RGB + tRNS and other non-RGBA modes take the image.convert("RGB") path, which implicitly discards/remaps transparency semantics.