CVE-2023-45142
OpenTelemetry-Go Contrib has DoS vulnerability in otelhttp due to unbound cardinality metrics
- Published
- Updated
- Reserved
- Assigned by
- GitHub_M
Description
OpenTelemetry-Go Contrib is a collection of third-party packages for OpenTelemetry-Go. A handler wrapper out of the box adds labels `http.user_agent` and `http.method` that have unbound cardinality. It leads to the server's potential memory exhaustion when many malicious requests are sent to it. HTTP header User-Agent or HTTP method for requests can be easily set by an attacker to be random and long. The library internally uses `httpconv.ServerRequest` that records every value for HTTP `method` and `User-Agent`. In order to be affected, a program has to use the `otelhttp.NewHandler` wrapper and not filter any unknown HTTP methods or User agents on the level of CDN, LB, previous middleware, etc. Version 0.44.0 fixed this issue when the values collected for attribute `http.request.method` were changed to be restricted to a set of well-known values and other high cardinality attributes were removed. As a workaround to stop being affected, `otelhttp.WithFilter()` can be used, but it requires manual careful configuration to not log certain requests entirely. For convenience and safe usage of this library, it should by default mark with the label `unknown` non-standard HTTP methods and User agents to show that such requests were made but do not increase cardinality. In case someone wants to stay with the current behavior, library API should allow to enable it.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub_MCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | High7.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H |
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.1 | High7.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 1.6% · top 24% of all CVEs (5 Nov 2026)
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 7.5.
Weakness
Affected products
open-telemetry · opentelemetry-go-contrib
- affected < 0.44.0
Affected packages
From reviewed advisories of the GitHub Advisory Database.
- Gogo.opentelemetry.io/contrib/instrumentation/github.com/emicklei/go-restful/otelrestfulGHSA-rcjv-mgp8-qvmr (opens in a new tab)
- Gogo.opentelemetry.io/contrib/instrumentation/github.com/gin-gonic/gin/otelginGHSA-rcjv-mgp8-qvmr (opens in a new tab)
- Gogo.opentelemetry.io/contrib/instrumentation/github.com/gorilla/mux/otelmuxGHSA-rcjv-mgp8-qvmr (opens in a new tab)
- Gogo.opentelemetry.io/contrib/instrumentation/github.com/labstack/echo/otelechoGHSA-rcjv-mgp8-qvmr (opens in a new tab)
- Gogo.opentelemetry.io/contrib/instrumentation/gopkg.in/macaron.v1/otelmacaronGHSA-rcjv-mgp8-qvmr (opens in a new tab)
- Gogo.opentelemetry.io/contrib/instrumentation/net/http/httptrace/otelhttptraceGHSA-rcjv-mgp8-qvmr (opens in a new tab)
- Gogo.opentelemetry.io/contrib/instrumentation/net/http/otelhttpGHSA-rcjv-mgp8-qvmr (opens in a new tab)
References (9)
- https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go-contrib/security/advisories/GHSA-rcjv-mgp8-qvmr (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
- https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go-contrib/security/advisories/GHSA-5r5m-65gx-7vrh (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go-contrib/pull/4277 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-cg3q-j54f-5p7p (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go-contrib/blob/5f7e6ad5a49b45df45f61a1deb29d7f1158032df/instrumentation/net/http/otelhttp/handler.go#L63-L65 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go-contrib/releases/tag/v1.19.0 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go/blob/38e1b499c3da3107694ad2660b3888eee9c8b896/semconv/internal/v2/http.go#L223 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go/blob/v1.12.0/semconv/internal/v2/http.go#L159 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/2UTRJ54INZG3OC2FTAN6AFB2RYNY2GAD/ (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisory GHSA-rcjv-mgp8-qvmr (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://trackcve.app/cve/CVE-2023-45142)Record last updated .