Summary
OpenTelemetry.Resources.Azure reads unbounded HTTP response bodies from the Azure VM remote instance metadata service endpoint into memory.
This would allow an attacker-controlled endpoint or one acting as a Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) to cause excessive memory allocation and possible process termination (via Out of Memory (OOM)).
Details
The AzureVmMetaDataRequestor class makes HTTP requests to the relevant Azure VM instance metadata service (http://169.254.169.254) to obtain metadata about the running process and its infrastructure.
An attacker who controls the configured endpoint, or who can intercept traffic to them (MiTM), can return an arbitrarily large response body. This causes unbounded heap allocation in the consuming process, leading to high transient memory pressure, garbage-collection stalls, or an OutOfMemoryException that terminates the process.
Mitigating Factors
The application's reachable Azure VM metadata endpoint needs to behave maliciously or be subject to MitM. In normal usage response bodies should not be excessively large.
Workarounds
- Disable the Azure VM resource detector.
- Use network-level controls (firewall rules, mTLS, service mesh) to prevent Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) attacks on the Azure VM instance metadata endpoint.
References
Impact
Denial of Service (DoS). An attacker can destabilize or crash the application by forcing unbounded memory allocation through the Azure VM instance metadata HTTP response paths.
The application allocates resources such as memory, threads, or file descriptors based on untrusted input without enforcing a cap. Typical impact: resource exhaustion leading to denial of service.
CVE-2026-41483 has a CVSS score of 5.9 (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 (1.15.1-beta.1); upgrading removes the vulnerable code path.
Affected versions
Security releases
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.
Remediation advice
Fixed in OpenTelemetry.Resources.Azure version 1.15.0-beta.2.
The fix (#4121) introduce changes that introduce limits to HttpClient requests so that the response body is streamed rather than buffered entirely in memory. Responses greater than 4 MiB are ignored.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is CVE-2026-41483? CVE-2026-41483 is a medium-severity allocation of resources without limits or throttling vulnerability in OpenTelemetry.Resources.Azure (nuget), affecting versions <= 1.15.0-beta.1. It is fixed in 1.15.1-beta.1. The application allocates resources such as memory, threads, or file descriptors based on untrusted input without enforcing a cap.
- How severe is CVE-2026-41483? CVE-2026-41483 has a CVSS score of 5.9 (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 OpenTelemetry.Resources.Azure are affected by CVE-2026-41483? OpenTelemetry.Resources.Azure (nuget) versions <= 1.15.0-beta.1 is affected.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2026-41483? Yes. CVE-2026-41483 is fixed in 1.15.1-beta.1. Upgrade to this version or later.
- Is CVE-2026-41483 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2026-41483 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-2026-41483 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-2026-41483? Upgrade
OpenTelemetry.Resources.Azureto 1.15.1-beta.1 or later.