CVE-2026-47701 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.7) vulnerability in github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-operator. O3 Security confirms whether CVE-2026-47701 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
OpenTelemetry Operator for Kubernetes's ServiceMonitor bearerTokenFile reads arbitrary local file and sends contents as bearer auth
Real-World Exposure
github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-operatorReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Go packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Affected
Repository: github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-operator Component: cmd/otel-allocator (TargetAllocator) Companion: Prometheus Operator API types (CRDs)
Summary
OpenTelemetry Operator's TargetAllocator watches ServiceMonitor resources via the Prometheus Operator CR watcher and converts each selected endpoint into a Prometheus scrape configuration entry. The endpoint field bearerTokenFile is preserved through the conversion as HTTPClientConfig.Authorization.CredentialsFile. The OpenTelemetry Collector, configured with the Prometheus receiver, then loads that scrape config and, at scrape time, reads the file from its own pod filesystem and sends the contents as Authorization: Bearer ... to the scrape endpoint.
A tenant who can create or update a ServiceMonitor selected by TargetAllocator can set bearerTokenFile: /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/token and a scrape target the tenant controls. The Collector then ships its mounted service account JWT to that target on every scrape interval.
The Prometheus Operator project addressed the same primitive via the ArbitraryFSAccessThroughSMs.Deny admission/runtime guard.
Preconditions
The OpenTelemetry Collector needs to be deployed with targetAllocator.prometheusCR.enabled: true and serviceMonitorSelector / serviceMonitorNamespaceSelector matching at least one namespace where the attacker can create or update ServiceMonitor (or paired with a TargetAllocator resource with the same respective settings). The Collector pod needs to have its service account token mounted. The Collector needs to be able to reach the scrape target chosen by the attacker.
Impact
Tenant ServiceMonitor write becomes equivalent to the OpenTelemetry Collector pod's service account against the Kubernetes API. Real impact depends on what the Collector service account is granted in a given deployment. Typical cluster monitoring setups grant pod, node, endpoint, namespace, and service list across the cluster, which is enough to enumerate and identify further targets. The same primitive can read any file the Collector pod has on disk including mounted certificates and other tokens.
Fix
https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-operator/pull/5104 adds support to disable service and podmonitor endpoints that read arbitrary files.
DenyFSAccessThroughSMs causes the Target Allocator to drop ServiceMonitor and PodMonitor endpoints that reference arbitrary files on the file system. When enabled, endpoints with bearerTokenFile, tlsConfig.caFile, tlsConfig.certFile, or tlsConfig.keyFile are dropped from the produced scrape configuration while the remaining endpoints are kept. This prevents tenants from stealing the Collector's service account token via ServiceMonitor bearerTokenFile references. This is the equivalent of ArbitraryFSAccessThroughSMs.Deny from the Prometheus Operator.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-operator | all versions | 0.152.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-operator. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-operator to 0.152.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-47701 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 pinpoints whether CVE-2026-47701 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to CVE-2026-47701. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2026-47701 in your dependencies?
O3 detects CVE-2026-47701 across Go dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.