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otelgrpc DoS vulnerability due to unbound cardinality metrics

High severity GitHub Reviewed Published Nov 10, 2023 in open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go-contrib • Updated Nov 12, 2023

Package

gomod go.opentelemetry.io/contrib/instrumentation/google.golang.org/grpc/otelgrpc (Go)

Affected versions

< 0.46.0

Patched versions

0.46.0

Description

Summary

The grpc Unary Server Interceptor opentelemetry-go-contrib/instrumentation/google.golang.org/grpc/otelgrpc/interceptor.go

// UnaryServerInterceptor returns a grpc.UnaryServerInterceptor suitable
// for use in a grpc.NewServer call.
func UnaryServerInterceptor(opts ...Option) grpc.UnaryServerInterceptor {

out of the box adds labels

  • net.peer.sock.addr
  • net.peer.sock.port

that have unbound cardinality. It leads to the server's potential memory exhaustion when many malicious requests are sent.

Details

An attacker can easily flood the peer address and port for requests.

PoC

Apply the attached patch to the example and run the client multiple times. Observe how each request will create a unique histogram and how the memory consumption increases during it.

Impact

In order to be affected, the program has to configure a metrics pipeline, use UnaryServerInterceptor, and does not filter any client IP address and ports via middleware or proxies, etc.

Others

It is similar to already reported vulnerabilities.

Workaround for affected versions

As a workaround to stop being affected, a view removing the attributes can be used.

The other possibility is to disable grpc metrics instrumentation by passing otelgrpc.WithMeterProvider option with noop.NewMeterProvider.

Solution provided by upgrading

In PR #4322, to be released with v0.46.0, the attributes were removed.

References

References

Published by the National Vulnerability Database Nov 10, 2023
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Nov 12, 2023
Reviewed Nov 12, 2023
Last updated Nov 12, 2023

Severity

High
7.5
/ 10

CVSS base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Weaknesses

CVE ID

CVE-2023-47108

GHSA ID

GHSA-8pgv-569h-w5rw
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