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.
CVSS Details
- CVSS 3.1 Base Score: 7.5
- CVSS 3.1 Vector: (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H)
Covered by Rapid7
| Product | Vendor Advisory | Solution File | Added | Published |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alpine Linux | — | Upgrade k3s | Aug 22, 2024 | Oct 12, 2023 |
| Amazon Linux Ami 2 | — | Upgrade cri-toolsUpgrade cri-tools-debuginfoUpgrade amazon-cloudwatch-agent | Jan 23, 2024 | Oct 12, 2023 |
| Amazon_linux_2023 | — | Upgrade amazon-cloudwatch-agent | Feb 17, 2025 | Oct 12, 2023 |
| Dell Powerstore Dsa2025086 | — | Upgrade Dell PowerStoreOS to the latest version | Oct 23, 2025 | Feb 20, 2025 |
| Dell Powerstore Dsa2025117 | — | Upgrade Dell PowerStoreOS to the latest version | Oct 23, 2025 | Mar 6, 2025 |
| Dell Powerstore Dsa2025147 | — | Upgrade Dell PowerStoreOS to the latest version | Oct 23, 2025 | Mar 27, 2025 |
| Splunk | — | Upgrade Splunk Enterprise to version 9.2.3Upgrade Splunk Enterprise to version 9.3.1Upgrade Splunk Enterprise to version 9.1.6 | Sep 30, 2025 | Oct 12, 2023 |
| Suse | — | Upgrade caddy-bash-completionUpgrade caddy-fish-completionUpgrade caddy-zsh-completionUpgrade caddy | Jul 23, 2024 | Oct 12, 2023 |
Prioritise with Active Threat Intelligence
With curated Threat Intelligence, you can see which vulnerabilities truly put you at risk, prioritize what matters most, and act before attackers do.
Explore Intelligence Hub