diff --git a/vllm/distributed/kv_transfer/kv_connector/v1/nixl_connector.py b/vllm/distributed/kv_transfer/kv_connector/v1/nixl_connector.py
index 7916d1e02..7e7e3ca55 100644
--- a/vllm/distributed/kv_transfer/kv_connector/v1/nixl_connector.py
+++ b/vllm/distributed/kv_transfer/kv_connector/v1/nixl_connector.py
@@ -4,7 +4,9 @@ import contextlib
 import copy
 import logging
 import math
+import os
 import queue
+import sys
 import threading
 import time
 import uuid
@@ -87,6 +89,21 @@ logger = init_logger(__name__)
 
 # Lazy import nixl_wrapper to avoid loading nixl_bindings if nixl is not used
 try:
+    if "UCX_MEM_MMAP_HOOK_MODE" not in os.environ:
+        # avoid a memory leak in UCX when using NIXL on some models
+        # see: https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm/issues/24264
+        if "nixl" in sys.modules or "rixl" in sys.modules:
+            logger.warning(
+                "NIXL was already imported, we can't disable UCX mmap hooks. "
+                "Please set UCX_MEM_MMAP_HOOK_MODE to 'none' manually."
+            )
+        else:
+            logger.info(
+                "Setting UCX_MEM_MMAP_HOOK_MODE to 'none' to avoid a rare "
+                "memory leak in UCX when using NIXL."
+            )
+            os.environ["UCX_MEM_MMAP_HOOK_MODE"] = "none"
+
     if not current_platform.is_rocm():
         from nixl._api import nixl_agent as NixlWrapper
         from nixl._bindings import nixlXferTelemetry