GHSA-ccrj-gw8r-854m - opentelemetry-java: Quadratic CPU consumption in W3C tracestate parsing
### Summary
OpenTelemetry Java's W3C trace-context propagator permits excessive CPU consumption when extracting crafted `tracestate` headers, potentially leading to denial of service. Regex backtracking causes quadratic parsing time for headers containing long runs of spaces or tabs without a following comma.
### Impact
An unauthenticated attacker whose headers reach `W3CTraceContextPropagator.extract()` can cause excessive CPU usage through crafted requests. Parsing blocks the calling thread, potentially affecting other connections when extraction runs on a shared event-loop thread. Actual impact depends on ingress header-size limits, proxy configuration, and threading. Header-size limits reduce the per-request cost but do not eliminate the vulnerability.
### Patches
Upgrade `io.opentelemetry:opentelemetry-api` to version **1.67.0** or later. [PR #8914](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-java/pull/8914) replaces regex delimiter splitting with literal comma scanning and explicit whitespace trimming.
### Workarounds
If upgrading is not possible, reject or remove oversized `tracestate` headers before trace-context extraction. This reduces the per-request parsing cost but does not eliminate the risk from repeated requests.
MEDIUM
Severity & confidence
Source severitymedium
Platform severitymedium
Confidencehigh
Exploitationunknown
CVSS5.3
Affected
Vendorsio.opentelemetry:opentelemetry-api
Productsio.opentelemetry:opentelemetry-api
Reporting sources (2)
GitHub Security Advisories
NIST NVD - National Vulnerability Database
Timeline & provenance
Published2026-10-28T21:07:40
Last updated2026-10-31T19:07:17
Ingested2026-10-28T21:09:16
FreshnessNEAR-REAL-TIME
Threat typeadvisory
Recommended action
Review the advisory and upgrade affected packages to the first patched version.
Next steps
- Identify affected systems in your environment.
- Apply the vendor patch or mitigation guidance.
- Review logs for indicators described in the advisory.
- Follow the affected vendor/product to track updates.
Confidence explanation
Reported by a government or cert-grade source (CISA, NCSC, NVD, ENISA, MSRC).
Source type: vendor ยท Original: GitHub Security Advisories