Medium severity · published Sep 16, 2026
CVE-2026-81869
OpenTelemetry-Go: UTF-8 replacement rune bypasses attribute length truncation
5.1
CVSS
0.2%
EPSS
No
On KEV
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.
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.2% · higher than 7% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
OP
opentelemetry-go · open-telemetry
>= 1.10.0, < 1.33.0 · source: vendor
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-81869
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-81869
github.com
https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go/commit/e016a78c9f5b24a1c2beeaad47686c2f2213f49a
github.com
https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go/issues/5996
github.com
https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go/pull/5997
github.com
https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go/releases/tag/sdk/v1.33.0
github.com
https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go/security/advisories/GHSA-p9f8-wvj8-2fg8
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