VulnerabilityPublished 4 Jun 2026

CVE-2026-41178: open-telemetry go.opentelemetry.io/otel/baggage · Excessive Memory Allocation

Affects open-telemetry go.opentelemetry.io/otel/baggageSource CVE Database V5

Compare

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 5.3 Medium.

Data as of 30 Oct 2026, 11:52 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

5.3Medium

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

EPSS: 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 26% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

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

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

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: Low: Performance is reduced or there are interruptions in resource availability. Even if repeated exploitation of the vulnerability is possible, the attacker does not have the ability to completely deny service to legitimate users. The resources in the impacted component are either partially available all of the time, or fully available only some of the time, but overall there is no direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 4 Jun 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponized: 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 30 Oct 2026.

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.
Weaponized: A Metasploit exploit module or Exploit-DB entry exists (Metasploit scanner modules do not count), or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity 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

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
open-telemetrygo.opentelemetry.io/otel/baggage	Affected =1.41.0 =1.43.0	Fixed in–
open-telemetrygo.opentelemetry.io/otel/propagation	Affected =1.41.0 =1.43.0	Fixed in–
Gogo.opentelemetry.io/otel/baggage`pkg:golang/go.opentelemetry.io/otel/baggage`Other threats	Affected =1.41.0 =1.43.0	Fixed in–

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

AI-suggested

Versions 1.42.0 and 1.44.0 of OpenTelemetry-Go have fixed this vulnerability by restoring raw-length rejection and proper validation of baggage headers. Users should upgrade to these or later versions to mitigate the risk. Patch status is not explicitly confirmed in the provided data; therefore, users should consult the official OpenTelemetry project advisories or repositories for the latest remediation information. No additional mitigation steps are indicated by the vendor advisory.

Description

OpenTelemetry-Go is the Go implementation of OpenTelemetry. Versions 1.41.0 and 1.43.0 removed raw-length rejection and it causes `Parse` to process arbitrarily large/invalid baggage headers and log errors, enabling DoS via oversized inputs. Versions 1.42.0 and 1.44.0 fix the issue.

Impact

The vulnerability enables denial of service attacks by allowing an attacker to send oversized baggage headers that cause excessive memory allocation in the affected OpenTelemetry-Go versions. This impacts the availability of services using these specific versions (1.41.0 and 1.43.0) but does not affect confidentiality or integrity. There are no known exploits in the wild at this time.

Summary

The vulnerability identified as CVE-2026-41178 affects the OpenTelemetry-Go implementation, specifically the baggage package. In versions 1.41.0 and 1.43.0, the removal of raw-length rejection allowed the Parse function to accept and process excessively large or invalid baggage headers. This can cause memory allocation with excessive size values, leading to denial of service conditions due to resource exhaustion. The issue is addressed in versions 1.42.0 and 1.44.0, which restore proper validation and mitigate the risk. The CVSS 3.1 score is 5.3 (medium), reflecting network attack vector, low complexity, no privileges required, no user interaction, and impact limited to availability.

CWE-789Memory Allocation with Excessive Size Value (opens in a new tab)
Variant weakness
The product allocates memory based on an untrusted, large size value, but it does not ensure that the size is within expected limits, allowing arbitrary amounts of memory to be allocated.
Implementation · Architecture and Design
Perform adequate input validation against any value that influences the amount of memory that is allocated. Define an appropriate strategy for handling requests that exceed the limit, and consider supporting a configuration option so that the administrator can extend the amount of memory to be used if necessary.
Operation
Run your program using system-provided resource limits for memory. This might still cause the program to crash or exit, but the impact to the rest of the system will be minimized.
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)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

Community reviews

Loading reviews…

Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 4 Jun 2026, 16:03 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-789

Technical details

References

Community reviews

Related threats