CVE-2026-81872
Reported by GitHub_M · Published September 16, 2026
OpenTelemetry-Go is the Go implementation of OpenTelemetry. Prior to version 0.21.0, the go.opentelemetry.io/otel/sdk/log BatchingProcessor can enter a tight CPU loop when attacker-driven log emission fills its asynchronous export buffer while the exporter is backpressured. NewBatchingProcessor wraps the exporter with newBufferExporter(exporter, 1), and the poll loop calls queue.TryDequeue and bufferExporter.EnqueueExport before immediately signaling pollTrigger whenever the queue remains at or above batchSize. Because a failed nonblocking EnqueueExport leaves the queue length unchanged, the processor repeatedly retries without waiting for its ticker, exhausting CPU and degrading or denying service in the embedding process. This issue is fixed in version 0.21.0.
Risk Scores
Affected Products
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
| open-telemetry | opentelemetry-go | < 0.21.0 |
| chainguard | redpanda-operator-26.1 | 0 |
| wolfi | kubescape | 0 |
| chainguard | traefik-fips-3.7 | 0 |
| chainguard | redpanda-operator-25.3 | 0 |
| chainguard | kubescape-operator-fips | 0 |
| chainguard | kubescape-operator | 0 |
| wolfi | kubescape-operator | 0 |
| chainguard | redpanda-operator | 0 |
| chainguard | grafana-fips-12.3 | 0 |
| chainguard | grafana-12.3 | 0 |
| chainguard | elastic-agent-9.3 | 0 |
| open-telemetry | opentelemetry-go | < 0.21.0 |
| wolfi | traefik-3.7 | 0 |
| chainguard | kubescape-server-fips | 0 |
| go.opentelemetry.io | otel/sdk/log | 0 |
| wolfi | grafana-12.3 | 0, 0, 0 |
| chainguard | kubescape | 0 |
| chainguard | traefik-3.7 | 0 |
| chainguard | elastic-agent-fips-9.2 | 0 |
…and 2 more
Timeline
- Sep 16, 2026 Coalition ESS Score
- Sep 16, 2026 CVE Published
- Sep 17, 2026 EPSS Score
- Sep 18, 2026 EPSS Score
- Sep 24, 2026 EPSS Score
- Sep 25, 2026 CVE Updated
- Sep 26, 2026 EPSS Score
- Sep 30, 2026 EPSS Score
- Sep 30, 2026 Security Advisory
- Oct 2, 2026 EPSS Score
- Oct 6, 2026 EPSS Score
- Oct 8, 2026 EPSS Score
References
- https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go/security/advisories/GHSA-hjf4-fphr-2h65 x_refsource_CONFIRM
- https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go/issues/6797 x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go/pull/8620 x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go/commit/ba71b09e6ed272e93a669aeaec1e98b1df4cc582 x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go/releases/tag/sdk/log/v0.21.0 x_refsource_MISC
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-81872 advisory
- https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-hjf4-fphr-2h65 advisory