A remote client accessing the OpenAI-compatible API can cause a denial of service by submitting a specific legal image where normalized pixels sum to zero when processed alone in a per-step encoder batch. This sequence leads the ` parse and validate image input` function to return no embedding, which is then propagated by `embed multimodal`. Consequently, the `sanity check mm encoder outputs` function triggers a fatal assertion, shutting down the engine for all users. This affects the DeepSeek-OCR, DeepSeek-OCR-2, and Unlimited-OCR image paths.