CVE-2026-81869OpenTelemetry-Go: UTF-8 replacement rune bypasses attribute length truncation
- 5.1MediumCVSS base score
- 0.18%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 92% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- YesPublic exploitsa reference or SSVC says so
Description
OpenTelemetry-Go is the Go implementation of OpenTelemetry. From version 1.10.0 until 1.33.0, the sdk/trace/span.go attribute truncation path can fail to enforce AttributeValueLengthLimit for string and string-slice attributes containing the valid Unicode replacement character U+FFFD. safeTruncateValidUTF8 treats the valid replacement rune as invalid UTF-8 and returns the original input, while strings.ToValidUTF8 leaves that valid rune unchanged, so a second safeTruncate attempt can also return the oversized value. An attacker who controls span attribute content can retain values longer than the configured limit, increasing per-span memory use and weakening denial-of-service protection in the instrumented process. This issue is fixed in version 1.33.0.
Public exploit
An exploit or proof of concept is public: anyone can try it against an unpatched system. A reference of the record is tagged as an exploit. CISA's SSVC rates its exploitation: a proof of concept is public.
Show the exploits1
References tagged exploit1 reference
Timeline
ID reserved
By GitHub_M
- 20 days later
· 20 days later
Published
- 1 day later
· 1 day later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub_MCNA (assigner) | 4.0 | Medium5.1 | CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N |
| NVDNVD · Awaiting Analysis | 4.0 | Medium5.1 | CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.18% · top 92% of all CVEs (13 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: poc · Automatable: no · Technical impact: partial
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 5.1.
Affected products
open-telemetry · opentelemetry-go
- affected >= 1.10.0, < 1.33.0
Affected packages
From reviewed advisories of the GitHub Advisory Database.
- Gogo.opentelemetry.io/otel/sdkGHSA-p9f8-wvj8-2fg8 (opens in a new tab)
References
References5
- https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go/security/advisories/GHSA-p9f8-wvj8-2fg8 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMexploit
- https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go/issues/5996 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go/pull/5997 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go/commit/e016a78c9f5b24a1c2beeaad47686c2f2213f49a (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go/releases/tag/sdk/v1.33.0 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISC
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2026-81260 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisory GHSA-p9f8-wvj8-2fg8 (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2026-81869)Record last updated .