How severe is CVE-2024-42368?

CVE-2024-42368 has a CVSS score of 6.5 (Medium). This score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether it represents real risk in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable.

Is there a fix for CVE-2024-42368?

Yes. CVE-2024-42368 is fixed in 0.107.0. Upgrade to this version or later.

Is CVE-2024-42368 exploitable, and should I be worried?

Whether CVE-2024-42368 is exploitable in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable. A CVSS score is a worst-case rating; it does not account for your specific deployment, configuration, or usage patterns. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to show which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so you can focus on the ones that represent real risk.

What actually determines whether CVE-2024-42368 is exploitable, and how bad it is?

Exploitability and impact are not fixed properties of a CVE. They depend on runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A high CVSS score on a dependency that never runs is not the same as real risk. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter.

CVE-2024-42368

Q: What is CVE-2024-42368?

CVE-2024-42368 is a medium-severity security vulnerability in github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/extension/bearertokenauthextension (go), affecting versions >= 0.80.0, < 0.107.0. It is fixed in 0.107.0.

Q: How do I fix CVE-2024-42368?

Upgrade github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/extension/bearertokenauthextension to 0.107.0 or later.

Summary

open-telemetry has an Observable Timing Discrepancy

The bearertokenauth extension's server authenticator performs a simple, non-constant time string comparison of the received & configured bearer tokens.

Details

https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/blob/9128a9258fe1fee36f198f97b1e3371fc7b77a93/extension/bearertokenauthextension/bearertokenauth.go#L189-L196

For background on the type of vulnerability, see https://ropesec.com/articles/timing-attacks/.

Workarounds

upgrade to v0.107.0 or above, or, if you're unable to upgrade at this time,
don't expose the receiver using bearertokenauth to network segments accessible by potential attackers, or
change the receiver to use a different authentication extension instead, or
disable the receiver relying on bearertokenauth

Impact

This impacts anyone using the bearertokenauth server authenticator. Malicious clients with network access to the collector may perform a timing attack against a collector with this authenticator to guess the configured token, by iteratively sending tokens and comparing the response time. This would allow an attacker to introduce fabricated or bad data into the collector's telemetry pipeline.

CVE-2024-42368 has a CVSS score of 6.5 (Medium). The vector is network-reachable, no privileges required, and no user interaction. A CVSS score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether this affects your application depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable in your environment. A fixed version is available (0.107.0); upgrading removes the vulnerable code path.

Affected versions

github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/extension/bearertokenauthextension (>= 0.80.0, < 0.107.0)

Security releases

github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/extension/bearertokenauthextension → 0.107.0 (go)

Kodem intelligence

Severity tells you how bad this could be in the worst case. It does not tell you whether you are exposed. Exploitability and impact are functions of runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A vulnerable package can sit in your dependency tree and never run.

Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter. Kodem's runtime-powered SCA identifies whether this CVE is reachable in your applications.

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Remediation advice

The observable timing vulnerability was fixed by @axw in v0.107.0 (PR https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/pull/34516) by using constant-time comparison.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2024-42368? CVE-2024-42368 is a medium-severity security vulnerability in github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/extension/bearertokenauthextension (go), affecting versions >= 0.80.0, < 0.107.0. It is fixed in 0.107.0.
How severe is CVE-2024-42368? CVE-2024-42368 has a CVSS score of 6.5 (Medium). This score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether it represents real risk in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable.
Which versions of github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/extension/bearertokenauthextension are affected by CVE-2024-42368? github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/extension/bearertokenauthextension (go) versions >= 0.80.0, < 0.107.0 is affected.
Is there a fix for CVE-2024-42368? Yes. CVE-2024-42368 is fixed in 0.107.0. Upgrade to this version or later.
Is CVE-2024-42368 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2024-42368 is exploitable in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable. A CVSS score is a worst-case rating; it does not account for your specific deployment, configuration, or usage patterns. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to show which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so you can focus on the ones that represent real risk. Get a demo
What actually determines whether CVE-2024-42368 is exploitable, and how bad it is? Exploitability and impact are not fixed properties of a CVE. They depend on runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A high CVSS score on a dependency that never runs is not the same as real risk. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter.
How do I fix CVE-2024-42368? Upgrade github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/extension/bearertokenauthextension to 0.107.0 or later.