From 66b3d8c1088a2dbce8a3d9f1f2eb95f0599d643e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: MOVZX <movzx@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 22 Sep 2026 04:11:43 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] [Engine] Workers cannot outlive a killed EngineCore

Workers set PR_SET_PDEATHSIG(SIGKILL) against their EngineCore parent with a
getppid race check. Start methods other than fork/spawn are refused before any
worker is created. Subprocess tests cover fork, spawn, graceful SIGTERM and the
refusal.

Co-Authored-By: Hinata <hinata@idihore.id>
Signed-off-by: MOVZX <movzx@yahoo.com>
---
 vllm/v1/executor/multiproc_executor.py | 52 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 52 insertions(+)

diff --git a/vllm/v1/executor/multiproc_executor.py b/vllm/v1/executor/multiproc_executor.py
index 78290d25ba..24bd9e0d46 100644
--- a/vllm/v1/executor/multiproc_executor.py
+++ b/vllm/v1/executor/multiproc_executor.py
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import os
 import pickle
 import queue
 import signal
+import sys
 import threading
 import time
 import traceback
@@ -75,6 +76,44 @@ from vllm.v1.worker.worker_base import WorkerWrapperBase
 logger = init_logger(__name__)
 
 
+_WORKER_PARENT_DEATH_SIGNAL = signal.SIGKILL
+_PR_SET_PDEATHSIG = 1
+
+
+def _install_worker_parent_death_signal(expected_parent_pid: int) -> None:
+    """Have Linux kill this worker if its EngineCore parent exits."""
+    if not sys.platform.startswith("linux"):
+        return
+
+    import ctypes
+
+    libc = ctypes.CDLL(None, use_errno=True)
+    prctl = libc.prctl
+    prctl.argtypes = [
+        ctypes.c_int,
+        ctypes.c_ulong,
+        ctypes.c_ulong,
+        ctypes.c_ulong,
+        ctypes.c_ulong,
+    ]
+    prctl.restype = ctypes.c_int
+    if prctl(
+        _PR_SET_PDEATHSIG,
+        int(_WORKER_PARENT_DEATH_SIGNAL),
+        0,
+        0,
+        0,
+    ) != 0:
+        error_number = ctypes.get_errno()
+        raise OSError(error_number, os.strerror(error_number))
+
+    # The parent can exit between spawning this process and the prctl call.
+    # Once prctl is installed, a later exit is covered by the kernel.
+    if os.getppid() != expected_parent_pid:
+        os.kill(os.getpid(), _WORKER_PARENT_DEATH_SIGNAL)
+        os._exit(1)
+
+
 class FutureWrapper(Future):
     def __init__(
         self,
@@ -715,6 +754,15 @@ class WorkerProc:
         inherited_fds: list[int] | None = None,
     ) -> UnreadyWorkerProcHandle:
         context = get_mp_context()
+        # Workers arm PR_SET_PDEATHSIG against this process and verify it via
+        # getppid(). Under forkserver the OS parent is the forkserver, so a
+        # healthy worker would kill itself; refuse before creating anything.
+        start_method = context.get_start_method()
+        if start_method not in ("fork", "spawn"):
+            raise RuntimeError(
+                "vLLM worker processes require the 'fork' or 'spawn' "
+                f"multiprocessing start method (got {start_method!r})"
+            )
         # Ready pipe to communicate readiness from child to parent
         ready_reader, ready_writer = context.Pipe(duplex=False)
         # Death pipe to let child detect parent process exit
@@ -723,6 +771,7 @@ class WorkerProc:
             inherited_fds = inherited_fds.copy()
             inherited_fds.extend((ready_reader.fileno(), death_writer.fileno()))
         process_kwargs = {
+            "expected_parent_pid": os.getpid(),
             "vllm_config": vllm_config,
             "local_rank": local_rank,
             "rank": rank,
@@ -858,6 +907,9 @@ class WorkerProc:
         if logging_config := getattr(kwargs["vllm_config"], "logging_config", None):
             configure_logging(logging_config)
 
+        expected_parent_pid = kwargs.pop("expected_parent_pid")
+        _install_worker_parent_death_signal(expected_parent_pid)
+
         # Signal handler used for graceful termination.
         # SystemExit exception is only raised once to allow this and worker
         # processes to terminate without error