CVE-2023-43810 : What You Need to Know

A denial of service vulnerability has been identified in the opentelemetry-instrumentation due to unbound cardinality metrics.

Understanding CVE-2023-43810

This CVE affects open-telemetry's opentelemetry-python-contrib version < 0.41b0.

What is CVE-2023-43810?

OpenTelemetry, an open-source Observability framework, is vulnerable to a denial of service attack caused by unbound cardinality metrics, leading to potential memory exhaustion from malicious requests with random and long HTTP methods.

The Impact of CVE-2023-43810

The vulnerability allows attackers to overwhelm the server by sending numerous malicious requests with arbitrary HTTP methods, causing denial of service and potential memory exhaustion.

Technical Details of CVE-2023-43810

This vulnerability in OpenTelemetry is assigned the CVE ID CVE-2023-43810. It has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.5, indicating a high severity issue with low attack complexity. The affected version is opentelemetry-python-contrib < 0.41b0.

Vulnerability Description

The vulnerability arises from uncontrolled resource consumption due to unbound cardinality metrics, allowing attackers to exhaust server memory by sending malicious requests with arbitrary HTTP methods.

Affected Systems and Versions

The vulnerability affects open-telemetry's opentelemetry-python-contrib version < 0.41b0.

Exploitation Mechanism

Attackers exploit this vulnerability by sending an excessive number of malicious requests with random and long HTTP methods, causing memory exhaustion on the server.

Mitigation and Prevention

To address CVE-2023-43810, immediate steps should be taken to mitigate the risk and prevent exploitation.

Immediate Steps to Take

Users are advised to update to version 0.41b0 of opentelemetry-python-contrib to apply the patch and prevent exploitation of this vulnerability.

Long-Term Security Practices

Implement strict input validation, filter unknown HTTP methods, and regularly update software to prevent future vulnerabilities.

Patching and Updates

Stay informed about security advisories, apply patches promptly, and follow best practices for secure coding to mitigate risks effectively.