Milvus versions up to 2.6.22 and 3.0.0 contain a missing authentication weakness that allows an attacker to send a specially crafted HTTP GET request to the /management/stop endpoint. The request does not require credentials and directly instructs the management server to shut down one of its critical components – proxy, datanode or querynode. Successful exploitation results in an immediate denial of service for the affected service and any applications that depend on it. The weakness is aligned with CWE‑306, reflecting a lack of authentication for a privileged operation. No persistence or lateral movement is achieved; the impact is limited to disabling components.

Vulnerable versions of Milvus are those released by milvus‑io, specifically 2.6.4 through 2.6.22 and 3.0.0. All installments contain the unauthenticated /management/stop endpoint on port 9091 that can be used to terminate service components. The product affected is Milvus, the vector database platform provided by milvus‑io. Systems with newer releases (for example, 2.6.23 or later) contain the fix and are not affected.

The CVSS score of 8.7 categorizes this flaw as High severity, and because the attack requires no authentication and only a crafted HTTP request, remote attackers can trigger it from any host that can reach port 9091. The EPSS indicator is currently unavailable, so the current exploitation probability cannot be quantified, but the lack of authentication reduces the barrier to exploitation considerably. The vulnerability is not yet listed in CISA’s KEV catalog, suggesting no confirmed widespread exploitation has been reported, yet the clear attack path means it should be considered a priority for remediation.