vulnerability / NVI-00016079 / Revision 1
Concurrent Ruby: `ReentrantReadWriteLock` read-count overflow grants a write lock without exclusivity
GitHub lists this reviewed advisory for concurrent-ruby. Published version ranges and source prerequisites are shown below; this is not an inspection of a visitor’s application.
This report has not inspected your inventory, configuration, deployed build, reachability or evidence. A catalog listing and a severity score do not establish exposure or compromise.
01 / Meaning
Why it matters
Published affected context helps an owner decide what evidence to gather. This report has not examined your application.
5.5 low
GitHub source severity; exploitability and local consequence require separate evidence.
As of · GitHub Advisory Database
02 / Applicability
The affected context
Affected versions, configuration prerequisites and known exclusions are public. Confirm each one against the deployed service.
concurrent-ruby
source listed< 1.3.7
### Summary `Concurrent::ReentrantReadWriteLock` can incorrectly grant a write lock after one thread acquires the read lock 32,768 times. The lock stores a thread's local read and write hold counts in one integer. The low 15 bits are used for the read hold count, and bit 15 is used as `WRITE_LOCK_HELD`. After 32,768 reentrant read acquisitions, the local read count crosses into the write-lock bit. `try_write_lock` then treats the thread as already holding a write lock and returns `true` without setting the global `RUNNING_WRITER` bit. This breaks the core mutual-exclusion guarantee: the caller is told it has a write lock, but other threads can still hold or acquire read locks at the same time. ### Version Software: concurrent-ruby Version: 1.3.6 Commit: 7a1b78941c081106c20a9ca0144ac73a48d254ab ### Details The implementation uses a shared counter to track global readers/writers and a per-thread local counter to support reentrancy: ```ruby READER_BITS = 15 WRITER_BITS = 14 WAITING_WRITER = 1 << READER_BITS RUNNING_WRITER = 1 << (READER_BITS + WRITER_BITS) MAX_READERS = WAITING_WRITER - 1 MAX_WRITERS = RUNNING_WRITER - MAX_READERS - 1 WRITE_LOCK_HELD = 1 << READER_
03 / Response
What to do next
- investigate
Identify the exact component and deployed version, examine the linked publisher’s conditions, and retain evidence of any mitigation.
Confirm current vendor support, compatibility and deployment evidence. This report has not tested a fix in your system. GitHub Advisory Database
A fixed release is not deployment evidence.
Check current vendor support and compatibility. After making a change, verify the deployed build and relevant runtime conditions. Keep the evidence, owner and time. An updated lockfile alone does not prove what is running.
04 / Limits
What this report cannot establish
- Customer inventory, deployment, reachability and exploitation have not been inspected.
05 / Provenance
Sources you can inspect
Each assertion retains its source. Mirrored records may repeat one underlying publisher; additional links are not independent corroboration.
- GHSA-wv3x-4vxv-whpp ↗
GitHub Advisory Database · vendor advisory
Observed . GitHub Advisory Database; CC-BY-4.0. Each advisory links its original attribution. Null normalizes fields.
Public revision history
Only published revisions appear here. Routine fetches do not create a material-change event.
- Revision 1 ·
First indexed by Null; source disclosure date is shown separately.