Description
opentelemetry-go-contrib is a collection of extensions for OpenTelemetry-Go. The v0.38.0 release of `go.opentelemetry.io/contrib/instrumentation/net/http/otelhttp` uses the `httpconv.ServerRequest` function to annotate metric measurements for the `http.server.request_content_length`, `http.server.response_content_length`, and `http.server.duration` instruments. The `ServerRequest` function sets the `http.target` attribute value to be the whole request URI (including the query string)[^1]. The metric instruments do not "forget" previous measurement attributes when `cumulative` temporality is used, this means the cardinality of the measurements allocated is directly correlated with the unique URIs handled. If the query string is constantly random, this will result in a constant increase in memory allocation that can be used in a denial-of-service attack. This issue has been addressed in version 0.39.0. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this issue.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| open-telemetry | opentelemetry-go-contrib | >= 0.38.0, < 0.39.0 | — |
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
Ubuntu
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 26.10 | golang-opentelemetry-contrib | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 26.04 LTS | golang-opentelemetry-contrib | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 25.10 | golang-opentelemetry-contrib | No fix yet | — |
Affected packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Affected | Fixed | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Go | go.opentelemetry.io/contrib/instrumentation/github.com/astaxie/beego/otelbeego | >= 0.38.0, < 0.39.0 | 0.39.0 | GHSA-5r5m-65gx-7vrh |
| Go | go.opentelemetry.io/contrib/instrumentation/net/http/otelhttp | >= 0.38.0, < 0.39.0 | 0.39.0 | GHSA-5r5m-65gx-7vrh |