CVE-2026-54788: Datadog opentelemetry Denial of Service Vulnerability

HIGH
Advisory Identifier: GHSA-gpwf-4h98-v82q
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CVSS 7.5
CWE-770
Published
Advisory Summary

CVE-2026-54788 is a HIGH (CVSS 7.5) denial of service vulnerability (CWE-770: Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling) affecting Datadog opentelemetry libraries in the crates.io ecosystem. The issue involves datadog-opentelemetry has unbounded w3c tracestate parsing that may lead to dos. Remediation is available by upgrading affected packages to version 0.3.3.

CVE-2026-54788 at a Glance

CVE Identifier CVE-2026-54788
GHSA Identifier GHSA-gpwf-4h98-v82q
Severity HIGH
CVSS v3.1 Base Score 7.5
CWE Classification CWE-770: Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling
Affected Product Datadog opentelemetry
Package Ecosystem crates.io
Published Date
Last Updated

Security Impact

CVSS: 7.5

The security impact metrics below are parsed directly from the CVSS v3.1 vector string (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H).

Attack Vector Network (AV:N)
Attack Complexity Low (AC:L)
Privileges Required None (PR:N)
User Interaction None (UI:N)
Scope Unchanged (S:U)
Confidentiality None (C:N)
Integrity None (I:N)
Availability High (A:H)

How to Fix CVE-2026-54788

To remediate this vulnerability, upgrade all affected Datadog opentelemetry dependencies to a patched release. Both direct and transitive dependencies should be checked, as frameworks or security libraries may pull in vulnerable versions transitively.

datadog-opentelemetry fixed: 0.3.3 
Upgrade datadog-opentelemetry to 0.3.3
Verify Direct and Transitive Dependencies

Run the following command in your project directory to verify that all resolved dependencies use the patched release: 

inspect dependencies for datadog-opentelemetry

How to Check if You Are Affected

To determine whether your application is affected by CVE-2026-54788, inspect your project dependencies for Datadog opentelemetry:

inspect dependencies for datadog-opentelemetry

Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of Datadog opentelemetry in your dependency tree. If any resolved version matches the vulnerable ranges listed in the table below (for example, versions earlier than 0.3.3), your application is affected.

Note: Verify declared build manifests and deployed runtime container environments.

Technical Details

Vulnerability Mechanism & Technical Analysis

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-770: Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling, where the product allocates a reusable resource or group of resources on behalf of an actor without imposing any intended restrictions on the size or number of resources that can be allocated. In Datadog opentelemetry, software state validation or input boundaries are circumvented during processing. Review the official source advisory statement below for specific affected components, classes, and reproduction details.

Source Advisory Statement

### Impact Datadog tracing libraries that implement W3C Trace Context (`tracecontext`) propagation parse the incoming `tracestate` header without enforcing a size cap on the Datadog vendor entry (`dd=...`). The `dd=` value contains semicolon-separated `key:value` pairs, and the parser allocates a hash-map entry for each pair. A remote, unauthenticated attacker can send a `tracestate` header whose `dd=` member is arbitrarily large (or contains an arbitrarily large number of pairs), forcing unbounded CPU and memory consumption per request and enabling a remote Denial of Service. `tracecontext` extraction is enabled by default in affected tracers, so any internet-facing service instrumented with an affected version is exposed unless `tracecontext` has been explicitly removed from the propagation style configuration. ### Patches This is resolved in version 0.3.3 and later of the `dd-trace-rs` library. ### Workarounds If you cannot upgrade immediately: 1. Disable `tracecontext` extraction by setting `DD_TRACE_PROPAGATION_STYLE_EXTRACT` to a value that does not include `tracecontext` (for example, `datadog`). 2. Cap the maximum HTTP request header size at an upstream proxy or web server.

CVE-2026-54788 Affected Datadog opentelemetry Versions

1 component(s)
Fixed Versions:
0.3.3
Product / Package Ecosystem Affected Versions Fixed Version
datadog-opentelemetry
 crates.io
≥ 0.1.0
< 0.3.3
0.3.3

References

GitHub Advisory / Wiki ADVISORY
https://github.com/DataDog/dd-trace-rs/security/advisories/GHSA-gpwf-4h98-v82q
Datadog opentelemetry Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/DataDog/dd-trace-rs/pull/218
Security Fix Commit FIX COMMIT
https://github.com/DataDog/dd-trace-rs/commit/77c5d185c71d0ea8103da0e6cf4cd50677ffacd2
Datadog opentelemetry Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/DataDog/dd-trace-rs
Datadog opentelemetry Release RELEASE
https://github.com/DataDog/dd-trace-rs/releases/tag/datadog-opentelemetry-v0.3.3

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2026-54788?
CVE-2026-54788 is a security vulnerability in Datadog opentelemetry involving datadog-opentelemetry has unbounded W3C tracestate parsing that may lead to DoS under CWE-770: Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling.
Which Datadog opentelemetry versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to 0.3.3 across affected packages: datadog-opentelemetry.
What version fixes CVE-2026-54788?
Upgrading to 0.3.3 (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
Is datadog-opentelemetry affected?
Yes, datadog-opentelemetry is affected in releases prior to 0.3.3. Upgrade your dependency to 0.3.3 or later.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2026-54788?
CVE-2026-54788 has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.5 (HIGH) with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.
What CWE is associated with CVE-2026-54788?
CVE-2026-54788 is classified under CWE-770: Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling (The product allocates a reusable resource or group of resources on behalf of an actor without imposing any intended restrictions on the size or number of resources that can be allocated.).
How can I check crates.io dependencies for CVE-2026-54788?
Run the dependency tree command: 'inspect dependencies for datadog-opentelemetry'. This command lists direct and transitive dependencies in your build configuration so you can verify if a vulnerable version is resolved.
Machine-readable OSV JSON OSV v1.5 Schema
Normalized schema output
View Raw JSON 
{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-gpwf-4h98-v82q",
  "modified" : "2026-08-28T16:35:03Z",
  "published" : "2026-08-28T16:35:03Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2026-54788" ],
  "summary" : "datadog-opentelemetry has unbounded W3C tracestate parsing that may lead to DoS",
  "details" : "### Impact\nDatadog tracing libraries that implement W3C Trace Context (`tracecontext`) propagation parse the incoming `tracestate` header without enforcing a size cap on the Datadog vendor entry (`dd=...`). The `dd=` value contains semicolon-separated `key:value` pairs, and the parser allocates a hash-map entry for each pair. A remote, unauthenticated attacker can send a `tracestate` header whose `dd=` member is arbitrarily large (or contains an arbitrarily large number of pairs), forcing unbounded CPU and memory consumption per request and enabling a remote Denial of Service. `tracecontext` extraction is enabled by default in affected tracers, so any internet-facing service instrumented with an affected version is exposed unless `tracecontext` has been explicitly removed from the propagation style configuration.\n\n### Patches\nThis is resolved in version 0.3.3 and later of the `dd-trace-rs` library.\n\n### Workarounds\nIf you cannot upgrade immediately:\n1. Disable `tracecontext` extraction by setting `DD_TRACE_PROPAGATION_STYLE_EXTRACT` to a value that does not include `tracecontext` (for example, `datadog`).\n2. Cap the maximum HTTP request header size at an upstream proxy or web server.",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "crates.io",
      "name" : "datadog-opentelemetry"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0.1.0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "0.3.3"
      } ]
    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/DataDog/dd-trace-rs/security/advisories/GHSA-gpwf-4h98-v82q"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/DataDog/dd-trace-rs/pull/218"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/DataDog/dd-trace-rs/commit/77c5d185c71d0ea8103da0e6cf4cd50677ffacd2"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/DataDog/dd-trace-rs"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/DataDog/dd-trace-rs/releases/tag/datadog-opentelemetry-v0.3.3"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-770" ],
    "severity" : "HIGH",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2026-08-28T16:35:03Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : null
  }
}