gRPC service interruption via unbounded metric labels
Published Nov 10, 2023 · Updated Oct 28, 2025
Resource exhaustion in OpenTelemetry-Go Contrib before 0.46.0 allows remote attackers to interrupt instrumented gRPC servers via requests. The UnaryServerInterceptor records net.peer.sock.addr and net.peer.sock.port in rpcDuration histogram attributes without bounding their cardinality, so varied client endpoints create continually new metric series. Exploitation requires a configured metrics pipeline, the unary interceptor, and no middleware or proxy filtering of client addresses and ports; memory exhaustion interrupts the server.
Summary
What happened
Resource exhaustion in OpenTelemetry-Go Contrib before 0.46.0 allows remote attackers to interrupt instrumented gRPC servers via requests. The UnaryServerInterceptor records net.peer.sock.addr and net.peer.sock.port in rpcDuration histogram attributes without bounding their cardinality, so varied client endpoints create continually new metric series. Exploitation requires a configured metrics pipeline, the unary interceptor, and no middleware or proxy filtering of client addresses and ports; memory exhaustion interrupts the server.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2023-47108
- Published
- Nov 10, 2023
- Updated
- Oct 28, 2025
- Vendor
- OpenTelemetry
- Product
- OpenTelemetry-Go Contrib
- Classifications
- CWE-770, T1499.003
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Nov 10, 2023CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Oct 28, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=>= 0.37.0, < 0.46.0
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
- GHSA-8pgv-569h-w5rw demonstration patchproof of concept · demonstrated
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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