OpenTelemetry Java SDK has Unbounded Memory Allocation in W3C Baggage Propagation

Exploitation

No confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next marks exploitation only from CISA KEV.

CVSS

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

EPSS

• CVE-2026-45292: 1.10% estimated exploitation activity in the next 30 days; percentile 65.65 (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-03). This is a model estimate, not proof of exploitation or customer exposure.

As published by the source; long descriptions are shortened.

Overview A vulnerability affects the baggage propagation implementation in opentelemetry-api and opentelemetry-extension-trace-propagators. Parsing oversized baggage causes unbounded memory allocation and CPU consumption. Because baggage is automatically re-injected into every outgoing request, the effect can fan out to downstream services that never received the original malicious request. Technical Details - W3CBaggagePropagator did not enforce any limit on the total size or entry count of the baggage header. The parser iterated character-by-character through the entire value regardless of length. - JaegerPropagator and OtTracePropagator had the same gap in their respective baggage extraction paths. - The W3C Baggage specification recommends a maximum of 8,192 bytes and 180 entries; none of these limits were enforced. Impact The practical availability impact for most deployments is limited. Every major Java HTTP server enforces its own header size limit (Tomcat, Jetty, Netty,…

Published by the source

14 May 2026, 16:36 UTC

Last modified by the source

9 Jun 2026, 02:01 UTC

Source last checked

26 Oct 2026, 16:45 UTC

1. Revision 1 · created · 26 Oct 2026

   Published from ghsa record GHSA-rcgg-9c38-7xpx

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# Patch Next advisory brief: CVE-2026-45292

Advisory: OpenTelemetry Java SDK has Unbounded Memory Allocation in W3C Baggage Propagation
IDs: CVE-2026-45292, GHSA-rcgg-9c38-7xpx
Record: https://patchnext.com/advisories/cve-2026-45292 (revision 1, source checked 26 Oct 2026, 16:45 UTC)
Inventory: none attached. This brief comes from a public page and does not say whether any deployment is affected.
Severity: Medium (CVSS 5.3)
Exploitation: no confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next confirms exploitation only from CISA KEV.
Vendor response: Vendor fix available; fixed versions by package: io.opentelemetry:opentelemetry-api 1.62.0; io.opentelemetry:opentelemetry-extension-trace-propagators 1.62.0. A vendor fix does not mean a deployment is fixed.

## Affected components
- Maven io.opentelemetry:opentelemetry-api: affected <= 1.61.0; fixed in 1.62.0
- Maven io.opentelemetry:opentelemetry-extension-trace-propagators: affected <= 1.61.0; fixed in 1.62.0

## Suggested inspection (read-only)
- Maven io.opentelemetry:opentelemetry-api: check the installed version with your package manager.
- Maven io.opentelemetry:opentelemetry-extension-trace-propagators: check the installed version with your package manager.

## Supported action
Upgrade each affected component to a fixed version on its release line. For a transitive dependency, upgrade the parent package or add an override or constraint, then regenerate the lockfile. Redeploy every environment that ran an affected version.

## Required regression checks
- Run the test suite and a production build.
- Exercise the features that depend on io.opentelemetry:opentelemetry-api, io.opentelemetry:opentelemetry-extension-trace-propagators.
- Repeat the inspection and confirm that only fixed versions remain installed.

## Rollback considerations
- Keep the previous lockfile and deployment artifact. Rolling back reinstates the vulnerable version, so apply any documented mitigation while you fix forward.

## Unresolved questions
- Which deployments run an affected version?
- Exploitation status can change. Check again before lowering the priority.
- Mark the work resolved only after the fixed version is verified in production.

## Sources
- Verified: https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-rcgg-9c38-7xpx (GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-rcgg-9c38-7xpx lists affected ranges: Maven io.opentelemetry:opentelemetry-api >=0 =0 <=1.61.0)

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