CVE-2023-47108VulnerabilityPublished 10 Nov 2023Updated 28 Oct 2025

CVE-2023-47108: open-telemetry opentelemetry-go-contrib · Unthrottled Resource Allocation

Affects open-telemetry opentelemetry-go-contribSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.5 High : upgrade to 0.46.0 soon.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 06:26 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

7.5High

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 2.0% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 80% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 0.46.0

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: None
Availability: High

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 10 Nov 2023
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 2026-10-26.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Upgrade github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go-contrib to 0.46.0.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Gogithub.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go-contrib`pkg:golang/github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go-contrib`Other threats	Affected <0.46.0 >=0.37.0	Fixed in 0.46.0

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

European organizations should immediately upgrade OpenTelemetry-Go Contrib to version 0.46.0 or later to fully remediate the vulnerability. If upgrading is not immediately feasible, implement one of the following mitigations: configure a telemetry view to remove the `net.peer.sock.addr` and `net.peer.sock.port` attributes from grpc metrics to prevent unbounded label cardinality; or disable grpc metrics instrumentation by passing the `otelgrpc.WithMeterProvider` option with a no-op meter provider to stop collection of these metrics entirely. Additionally, organizations should monitor grpc service logs and telemetry for unusual spikes in unique peer addresses or ports, which could indicate exploitation attempts. Network-level rate limiting or filtering of suspicious traffic sources can also reduce attack surface. Finally, incorporate this vulnerability into incident response and patch management workflows to ensure timely remediation and awareness.

Description

OpenTelemetry-Go Contrib is a collection of third-party packages for OpenTelemetry-Go. Starting in version 0.37.0 and prior to version 0.46.0, the grpc Unary Server Interceptor out of the box adds labels `net.peer.sock.addr` and `net.peer.sock.port` that have unbound cardinality. It leads to the server's potential memory exhaustion when many malicious requests are sent. An attacker can easily flood the peer address and port for requests. Version 0.46.0 contains a fix for this issue. As a workaround to stop being affected, a view removing the attributes can be used. The other possibility is to disable grpc metrics instrumentation by passing `otelgrpc.WithMeterProvider` option with `noop.NewMeterProvider`.

Impact

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a significant risk to the availability of telemetry infrastructure that relies on the affected OpenTelemetry-Go Contrib versions. Telemetry data is critical for monitoring, observability, and incident response; disruption can impair the ability to detect and respond to other security incidents or operational issues. Organizations with high-volume grpc services or those exposed to untrusted networks are particularly vulnerable to denial of service attacks exploiting this flaw. The memory exhaustion can lead to service crashes or degraded performance, impacting business continuity and potentially causing cascading failures in dependent systems. Given the widespread adoption of OpenTelemetry in cloud-native and microservices environments, the impact could be broad, affecting sectors such as finance, healthcare, telecommunications, and public services across Europe. The lack of known exploits in the wild suggests limited active exploitation currently, but the ease of exploitation and high severity score warrant proactive mitigation.

CWE-770Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling (opens in a new tab)
Base weaknessLikelihood of exploit: HighCWE Top 25 (2025): #25
The product allocates a reusable resource or group of resources on behalf of an actor without imposing any intended restrictions on the size or number of resources that can be allocated.
Requirements
Clearly specify the minimum and maximum expectations for capabilities, and dictate which behaviors are acceptable when resource allocation reaches limits.
Architecture and Design
Limit the amount of resources that are accessible to unprivileged users. Set per-user limits for resources. Allow the system administrator to define these limits. Be careful to avoid CWE-410.
Architecture and Design
Design throttling mechanisms into the system architecture. The best protection is to limit the amount of resources that an unauthorized user can cause to be expended.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Abuse Case (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V8.1.4 (opens in a new tab)
V13.4.1 (opens in a new tab)
V11.1.4 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
XML Ping of the Death (opens in a new tab)
Exponential Data Expansion (opens in a new tab)
Serialized Data Parameter Blowup (opens in a new tab)
Serialized Data with Nested Payloads (opens in a new tab)
Oversized Serialized Data Payloads (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 28 Oct 2025, 19:18 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-770

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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