opentelemetry-java up to 1.66.x Trace Context Propagator W3CTraceContextPropagator.extract incorrect regex

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability classified as problematic has been found in opentelemetry-java up to 1.66.x. Affected by this vulnerability is the function W3CTraceContextPropagator.extract of the component Trace Context Propagator. Performing a manipulation results in incorrect regex. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2026-118259. Remote exploitation of the attack is possible. No exploit is available. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as problematic has been found in opentelemetry-java up to 1.66.x. This affects the function W3CTraceContextPropagator.extract of the component Trace Context Propagator. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a incorrect regex vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-185. The product specifies a regular expression in a way that causes data to be improperly matched or compared. This is going to have an impact on availability. The summary by CVE is:

opentelemetry-java is the Java implementation of the OpenTelemetry API for recording telemetry, and SDK for managing telemetry recorded by the API. Prior to 1.67.0, W3CTraceContextPropagator.extract() uses regex delimiter processing that can exhibit quadratic backtracking while parsing tracestate headers containing long runs of spaces or tabs without a following comma. An unauthenticated attacker whose headers reach extraction can repeatedly block request or event-loop threads and cause excessive CPU consumption, with practical impact bounded by ingress header-size limits, proxy configuration, and threading. This issue is fixed in version 1.67.0.

It is possible to read the advisory at github.com. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2026-118259 since 10/27/2026. The exploitability is told to be easy. It is possible to initiate the attack remotely. No form of authentication is needed for exploitation. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit.

Upgrading to version 1.67.0 eliminates this vulnerability.

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Productinfo

Type

• Programming Language Software

Name

• opentelemetry-java

Version

• 1.0
• 1.1
• 1.2
• 1.3
• 1.4
• 1.5
• 1.6
• 1.7
• 1.8
• 1.9
• 1.10
• 1.11
• 1.12
• 1.13
• 1.14
• 1.15
• 1.16
• 1.17
• 1.18
• 1.19
• 1.20
• 1.21
• 1.22
• 1.23
• 1.24
• 1.25
• 1.26
• 1.27
• 1.28
• 1.29
• 1.30
• 1.31
• 1.32
• 1.33
• 1.34
• 1.35
• 1.36
• 1.37
• 1.38
• 1.39
• 1.40
• 1.41
• 1.42
• 1.43
• 1.44
• 1.45
• 1.46
• 1.47
• 1.48
• 1.49
• 1.50
• 1.51
• 1.52
• 1.53
• 1.54
• 1.55
• 1.56
• 1.57
• 1.58
• 1.59
• 1.60
• 1.61
• 1.62
• 1.63
• 1.64
• 1.65
• 1.66

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