GHSA-38wr-vpc7-2mp4
HIGHdd-trace-dotnet: Improper parsing of W3C baggage headers may lead to DoS
Blast Radius
Datadog.Trace.NETDatadog.Trace.OpenTracingReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects NuGet packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Impact
Datadog tracing libraries that implement W3C baggage propagation parse incoming baggage HTTP headers without enforcing item-count or byte-size limits on the extract path. The DD_TRACE_BAGGAGE_MAX_ITEMS (default 64) and DD_TRACE_BAGGAGE_MAX_BYTES (default 8192) limits were applied only to baggage injection, not extraction. A remote, unauthenticated attacker can send a request whose baggage header contains an arbitrarily large number of comma-separated key-value pairs (or a single very large value). The tracer allocates a hash-map entry for each pair on every request, causing unbounded CPU and memory consumption and enabling a remote Denial of Service against any HTTP service that has the baggage propagation style enabled. The baggage propagation style is enabled by default in most affected tracers, so any internet-facing service that has been instrumented with an affected tracer version is exposed unless the propagation style has been explicitly narrowed.
Patches
This is resolved in version 3.43.0 and later of the dd-trace-dotnet library.
Workarounds
If users cannot upgrade immediately:
- Disable
baggageextraction by removingbaggagefromDD_TRACE_PROPAGATION_STYLE(orDD_TRACE_PROPAGATION_STYLE_EXTRACTif set independently). - Cap the maximum HTTP request header size at an upstream proxy or web server (for example, Apache
LimitRequestFieldSize, Nginxlarge_client_header_buffers, Envoymax_request_headers_kb).
Resources
Related upstream advisories: opentelemetry-go GHSA-mh2q-q3fh-2475 opentelemetry-dotnet GHSA-g94r-2vxg-569j
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| .NETNuGet | Datadog.Trace | all versions | 3.43.0 |
| .NETNuGet | Datadog.Trace.OpenTracing | all versions | 3.43.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for Datadog.Trace. 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 Datadog.Trace to 3.43.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-38wr-vpc7-2mp4 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 GHSA-38wr-vpc7-2mp4 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 GHSA-38wr-vpc7-2mp4. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-38wr-vpc7-2mp4 in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-38wr-vpc7-2mp4 across NuGet dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.