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OpenAdvisories
Medium · 5.3 CVE-2026-126360 EUVD-2026-124741GHSA-mf5v-w3w3-f6cg

OpenTelemetry Python: Denial of service through quadratic-time traceparent parsing in opentelemetry-api

Published Nov 12, 2026 · Updated Nov 13, 2026 · Assigned by GitHub_M

Description

OpenTelemetry Python provides the Python API and SDK for OpenTelemetry. Prior to 1.45.2, TraceContextTextMapPropagator.extract() in opentelemetry-api can perform quadratic-time regular-expression backtracking on a malformed traceparent value containing a trace-context prefix, a long whitespace sequence, and an embedded newline. Exploitation requires an attacker-controlled carrier that preserves embedded newlines and permits a sufficiently large value, because conforming HTTP header values cannot contain embedded newlines. JSON-based carriers, including applicable MCP request metadata integrations, can preserve the required newline depending on the SDK, instrumentation, and message-size limits. Parsing on an asynchronous server's event-loop thread can consume excessive CPU and delay unrelated requests, while the advisory does not establish disclosure, modification, or code execution. This issue is fixed in version 1.45.2.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
open-telemetry opentelemetry-python < 1.45.2 —

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.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 26.10 python-opentelemetry No fix yet —
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS python-opentelemetry No fix yet —

Affected packages

EcosystemPackageAffectedFixedRecord
PyPI opentelemetry-api < 1.45.2 1.45.2 GHSA-mf5v-w3w3-f6cg

References