OpenTelemetry Operator: ServiceMonitor bearerTokenFile reads arbitrary local file and sends contents as bearer auth

Summary

The OpenTelemetry Operator is a Kubernetes Operator for the OpenTelemetry Collector. Prior to 0.152.0, cmd/otel-allocator TargetAllocator instances with targetAllocator.prometheusCR.enabled set to true preserve a selected ServiceMonitor endpoint's bearerTokenFile value as HTTPClientConfig.Authorization.CredentialsFile. A tenant who can create or update a ServiceMonitor matched by serviceMonitorSelector and serviceMonitorNamespaceSelector can point bearerTokenFile at a file in the Collector pod, including /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/token, and direct scraping to a tenant-controlled endpoint. The Collector reads that file at scrape time and sends its contents as bearer authorization on every scrape interval. Exploitation also requires the Collector service-account token or another sensitive file to be mounted and the Collector to reach the chosen target. The DenyFSAccessThroughSMs control was absent, allowing disclosure of the Collector's service-account JWT or other mounted files, and resulting Kubernetes API impact is limited by the Collector service account's permissions. This issue is fixed in version 0.152.0.

Timeline

1. Sep 14, 2026, 3:32 PM UTCCVE published
2. Sep 14, 2026, 4:42 PM UTCCISA SSVC assessment

   Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: partial

3. Sep 14, 2026, 4:43 PM UTCRecord last updated

Affected versions

• open-telemetry opentelemetry-operator

  fixed in 0.152.0

• github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-operatorGo

  fixed in 0.152.0

References 4