{"schema_version":"1.7.3","id":"GHSA-rcjv-mgp8-qvmr","published":"2023-10-16T14:01:54Z","modified":"2026-02-04T03:29:04.036402Z","aliases":["CVE-2023-45142","GO-2023-2113"],"related":["CGA-hgjv-cj3f-pfjf","CVE-2023-45142","GO-2022-0322","GO-2023-1546"],"summary":"OpenTelemetry-Go Contrib vulnerable to denial of service in otelhttp due to unbound cardinality metrics","details":"### Summary\n\nThis handler wrapper https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go-contrib/blob/5f7e6ad5a49b45df45f61a1deb29d7f1158032df/instrumentation/net/http/otelhttp/handler.go#L63-L65\nout of the box adds labels\n\n- `http.user_agent`\n- `http.method`\n\nthat have unbound cardinality. It leads to the server's potential memory exhaustion when many malicious requests are sent to it.\n\n### Details\n\nHTTP 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](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go/blob/v1.12.0/semconv/internal/v2/http.go#L159) that records every value for HTTP [method](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go/blob/38e1b499c3da3107694ad2660b3888eee9c8b896/semconv/internal/v2/http.go#L204) and [User-Agent](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go/blob/38e1b499c3da3107694ad2660b3888eee9c8b896/semconv/internal/v2/http.go#L223).\n\n### PoC\n\nSend many requests with long randomly generated HTTP methods or/and User agents (e.g. a million) and observe how memory consumption increases during it.\n\n### Impact\n\nIn order to be affected, the program has to configure a metrics pipeline, use [otelhttp.NewHandler](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go-contrib/blob/5f7e6ad5a49b45df45f61a1deb29d7f1158032df/instrumentation/net/http/otelhttp/handler.go#L63-L65) wrapper, and does not filter any unknown HTTP methods or User agents on the level of CDN, LB, previous middleware, etc.\n\n### Others\n\nIt is similar to already reported vulnerabilities\n- https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go-contrib/security/advisories/GHSA-5r5m-65gx-7vrh ([open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go-contrib](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go-contrib))\n- https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-cg3q-j54f-5p7p ([prometheus/client_golang](https://github.com/prometheus/client_golang))\n\n### Workaround for affected versions\n\nAs a workaround to stop being affected [otelhttp.WithFilter()](https://pkg.go.dev/go.opentelemetry.io/contrib/instrumentation/net/http/otelhttp/filters) can be used, but it requires manual careful configuration to not log certain requests entirely.\n\nFor 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.\n\nThe other possibility is to disable HTTP metrics instrumentation by passing [`otelhttp.WithMeterProvider`](https://pkg.go.dev/go.opentelemetry.io/contrib/instrumentation/net/http/otelhttp#WithMeterProvider) option with [`noop.NewMeterProvider`](https://pkg.go.dev/go.opentelemetry.io/otel/metric/noop#NewMeterProvider).\n\n### Solution provided by upgrading\n\nIn PR https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go-contrib/pull/4277, released with package version 0.44.0, 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.\n\n### References\n\n- https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go-contrib/pull/4277\n- https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go-contrib/releases/tag/v1.19.0\n","affected":[{"package":{"name":"go.opentelemetry.io/contrib/instrumentation/net/http/otelhttp","ecosystem":"Go","purl":"pkg:golang/go.opentelemetry.io/contrib/instrumentation/net/http/otelhttp"},"ranges":[{"type":"SEMVER","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"0.44.0"}]}],"database_specific":{"source":"https://github.com/github/advisory-database/blob/main/advisories/github-reviewed/2023/10/GHSA-rcjv-mgp8-qvmr/GHSA-rcjv-mgp8-qvmr.json"}},{"package":{"name":"go.opentelemetry.io/contrib/instrumentation/github.com/emicklei/go-restful/otelrestful","ecosystem":"Go","purl":"pkg:golang/go.opentelemetry.io/contrib/instrumentation/github.com/emicklei/go-restful/otelrestful"},"ranges":[{"type":"SEMVER","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"0.44.0"}]}],"database_specific":{"source":"https://github.com/github/advisory-database/blob/main/advisories/github-reviewed/2023/10/GHSA-rcjv-mgp8-qvmr/GHSA-rcjv-mgp8-qvmr.json"}},{"package":{"name":"go.opentelemetry.io/contrib/instrumentation/github.com/gin-gonic/gin/otelgin","ecosystem":"Go","purl":"pkg:golang/go.opentelemetry.io/contrib/instrumentation/github.com/gin-gonic/gin/otelgin"},"ranges":[{"type":"SEMVER","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"0.44.0"}]}],"database_specific":{"source":"https://github.com/github/advisory-database/blob/main/advisories/github-reviewed/2023/10/GHSA-rcjv-mgp8-qvmr/GHSA-rcjv-mgp8-qvmr.json"}},{"package":{"name":"go.opentelemetry.io/contrib/instrumentation/github.com/gorilla/mux/otelmux","ecosystem":"Go","purl":"pkg:golang/go.opentelemetry.io/contrib/instrumentation/github.com/gorilla/mux/otelmux"},"ranges":[{"type":"SEMVER","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"0.44.0"}]}],"database_specific":{"source":"https://github.com/github/advisory-database/blob/main/advisories/github-reviewed/2023/10/GHSA-rcjv-mgp8-qvmr/GHSA-rcjv-mgp8-qvmr.json"}},{"package":{"name":"go.opentelemetry.io/contrib/instrumentation/github.com/labstack/echo/otelecho","ecosystem":"Go","purl":"pkg:golang/go.opentelemetry.io/contrib/instrumentation/github.com/labstack/echo/otelecho"},"ranges":[{"type":"SEMVER","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"0.44.0"}]}],"database_specific":{"source":"https://github.com/github/advisory-database/blob/main/advisories/github-reviewed/2023/10/GHSA-rcjv-mgp8-qvmr/GHSA-rcjv-mgp8-qvmr.json"}},{"package":{"name":"go.opentelemetry.io/contrib/instrumentation/gopkg.in/macaron.v1/otelmacaron","ecosystem":"Go","purl":"pkg:golang/go.opentelemetry.io/contrib/instrumentation/gopkg.in/macaron.v1/otelmacaron"},"ranges":[{"type":"SEMVER","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"0.44.0"}]}],"database_specific":{"source":"https://github.com/github/advisory-database/blob/main/advisories/github-reviewed/2023/10/GHSA-rcjv-mgp8-qvmr/GHSA-rcjv-mgp8-qvmr.json"}},{"package":{"name":"go.opentelemetry.io/contrib/instrumentation/net/http/httptrace/otelhttptrace","ecosystem":"Go","purl":"pkg:golang/go.opentelemetry.io/contrib/instrumentation/net/http/httptrace/otelhttptrace"},"ranges":[{"type":"SEMVER","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"0.44.0"}]}],"database_specific":{"source":"https://github.com/github/advisory-database/blob/main/advisories/github-reviewed/2023/10/GHSA-rcjv-mgp8-qvmr/GHSA-rcjv-mgp8-qvmr.json"}}],"references":[{"type":"WEB","url":"https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go-contrib/security/advisories/GHSA-5r5m-65gx-7vrh"},{"type":"WEB","url":"https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go-contrib/security/advisories/GHSA-rcjv-mgp8-qvmr"},{"type":"ADVISORY","url":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-45142"},{"type":"WEB","url":"https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go-contrib/pull/4277"},{"type":"ADVISORY","url":"https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-cg3q-j54f-5p7p"},{"type":"PACKAGE","url":"https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go-contrib"},{"type":"WEB","url":"https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go-contrib/blob/5f7e6ad5a49b45df45f61a1deb29d7f1158032df/instrumentation/net/http/otelhttp/handler.go#L63-L65"},{"type":"WEB","url":"https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go-contrib/releases/tag/v1.19.0"},{"type":"WEB","url":"https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go/blob/38e1b499c3da3107694ad2660b3888eee9c8b896/semconv/internal/v2/http.go#L223"},{"type":"WEB","url":"https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go/blob/v1.12.0/semconv/internal/v2/http.go#L159"},{"type":"WEB","url":"https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/2UTRJ54INZG3OC2FTAN6AFB2RYNY2GAD"}],"database_specific":{"cwe_ids":["CWE-770"],"github_reviewed":true,"github_reviewed_at":"2023-10-16T14:01:54Z","nvd_published_at":"2023-10-12T17:15:09Z","severity":"HIGH"},"severity":[{"type":"CVSS_V3","score":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H"}]}