Definition
A specially crafted, tiny file — often an audio or archive file — that expands to an enormous size (e.g. a 25 MB file expanding to nearly 15 GB) when an AI server processes it. Sending a single such file can exhaust the server's memory and crash it, taking down the AI service for all users.
Why it matters
Any AI service that accepts file uploads — for transcription, document processing, or analysis — can be taken offline by a single unauthenticated request costing the attacker nothing, while the business loses access to its AI tools. vLLM, one of the most widely deployed AI serving engines, was found vulnerable to exactly this.