VulnerabilityPublished 23 Oct 2026Updated 31 Oct 2026

CVE-2026-114603: OpenTelemetry Python · Unbounded tracestate parsing in opentelemetry-api

Affects parsedmarcSource GCVE Database

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Authoritative record:CVE-2026-114603· Medium 5.3

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 5.3 Medium : upgrade to 11.0.4 when convenient.

Data as of 1 Nov 2026, 00:35 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

5.3Medium

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

Thin evidence

One scorer or none

CVSS scores by source
CNA (GitHub_M)	CVSS 3.1	5.3

Patch: Available – fixed in 11.0.4

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 22 Oct 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 31 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

Upgrade parsedmarc to 11.0.4.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Homebrewparsedmarc`pkg:brew/parsedmarc`Other threats	Affected >=9.11.0 <11.0.4	Fixed in 11.0.4

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

AI-suggested

A fix is available in OpenTelemetry Python version 11.0.4. Users should upgrade to this version or later to resolve the vulnerability. Until upgraded, mitigating controls include limiting the maximum allowed size of tracestate headers at the server or proxy level to prevent excessively large headers from reaching the vulnerable parser. Note that some servers like gunicorn and uvicorn already enforce header size limits that may mitigate this issue. No other specific mitigations are described.

Description

CVE-2026-114603 is a vulnerability in the OpenTelemetry Python package 'opentelemetry-api' affecting the TraceState.from_header method. The vulnerability arises from the use of a regular expression that starts with an unbounded optional whitespace run without length limits, causing an O(N²) CPU cost when parsing specially crafted tracestate headers with long runs of spaces or tabs. This can lead to significant processing delays and blocking of other connections in asyncio servers. The issue affects versions from 1.0.0 through versions before 11.0.4. A fix is available in version 11.0.4.

Impact

The vulnerability allows an attacker to cause a denial of service by sending a single unauthenticated request with a specially crafted large tracestate header containing long runs of spaces or tabs. This causes the server to spend excessive CPU time (up to 12 seconds per request) parsing the header due to the quadratic complexity of the regex split operation. In asyncio-based servers, this can block other connections, effectively degrading service availability. No confidentiality or integrity impact is described.

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Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 1 Nov 2026, 00:35 UTC

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