This happens only when using Octane. exr output, not Blender's .exr files.
I’m generating an AO pass in my .exr files. The ones from Blender’s output seem fine but the ones generated from the Octane output are saturated in yellow. Happens in both 2020 and 2019. The issue occurs when the “Alpha Channel” is enabled in Kernel settings to hide the environment. And it is a problem that manifests itself in stand alone as well.
However, as mentioned, if I switch from Octane output to Blender’s .exr output then the AO pass renders fine – regardless of whether Alpha Channel is enabled or not.
Another oddity is that when the Octane .exr (with Alpha Channel enabled) is opened in Photoshop using Otoy’s own EXR plugin, the AO layer renders normally. But if the file is opened using either ProEXR or EXR-IO, then the AO channel renders all yellow.
FYI: I also posted this in the stand alone development forum:
viewtopic.php?f=33&t=74499