Concurrent Ruby: `ReentrantReadWriteLock` read-count overflow grants a write lock without exclusivity

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:

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_BITS
READ_LOCK_MASK  = WRITE_LOCK_HELD - 1
WRITE_LOCK_MASK = MAX_WRITERS

When a thread already holds a lock, acquire_read_lock increments @HeldCount:

if (held = @HeldCount.value) > 0
  if held & READ_LOCK_MASK == 0
    @Counter.update { |c| c + 1 }
  end
  @HeldCount.value = held + 1
  return true
end

After 32,768 read acquisitions, the per-thread held count becomes 32768, which is equal to WRITE_LOCK_HELD. Then try_write_lock returns success through its "already have a write lock" branch:

def try_write_lock
  if (held = @HeldCount.value) >= WRITE_LOCK_HELD
    @HeldCount.value = held + WRITE_LOCK_HELD
    return true
  else
    # normal global writer acquisition path
  end
end

This branch does not set the global RUNNING_WRITER bit. Other threads therefore do not observe an active writer and can continue holding or acquiring read locks while the caller believes it owns the write lock.

PoC

#!/usr/bin/env ruby
# frozen_string_literal: true

require 'concurrent/atomic/reentrant_read_write_lock'
require 'concurrent/version'
require 'thread'

def wait_for_queue(queue, timeout_seconds)
  deadline = Process.clock_gettime(Process::CLOCK_MONOTONIC) + timeout_seconds
  loop do
    return queue.pop(true)
  rescue ThreadError
    return nil if Process.clock_gettime(Process::CLOCK_MONOTONIC) >= deadline

    sleep 0.001
  end
end

puts "ruby=#{RUBY_DESCRIPTION}"
puts "concurrent_ruby_version=#{Concurrent::VERSION}"
puts "poc=ReentrantReadWriteLock read-depth overflow grants write lock without exclusivity"

lock = Concurrent::ReentrantReadWriteLock.new
other_reader_ready = Queue.new
other_reader_stop = Queue.new

other_reader = Thread.new do
  lock.acquire_read_lock
  other_reader_ready << :held
  other_reader_stop.pop
end

wait_for_queue(other_reader_ready, 1)
puts "other_thread_holds_read_lock=true"

depth = Concurrent::ReentrantReadWriteLock::WRITE_LOCK_HELD
depth.times { lock.acquire_read_lock }

held_count = lock.instance_eval { @HeldCount.value }
counter_before = lock.instance_eval { @Counter.value }

puts "main_thread_read_acquisitions=#{depth}"
puts "main_thread_held_count=#{held_count}"
puts "counter_before_try_write=#{counter_before}"
puts "running_writer_bit_before=#{(counter_before & Concurrent::ReentrantReadWriteLock::RUNNING_WRITER) != 0}"

write_granted = lock.try_write_lock
counter_after = lock.instance_eval { @Counter.value }

puts "try_write_lock_returned=#{write_granted}"
puts "counter_after_try_write=#{counter_after}"
puts "running_writer_bit_after=#{(counter_after & Concurrent::ReentrantReadWriteLock::RUNNING_WRITER) != 0}"

third_reader_ready = Queue.new
third_reader = Thread.new do
  lock.acquire_read_lock
  third_reader_ready << :acquired
end

third_reader_acquired = wait_for_queue(third_reader_ready, 0.25) == :acquired
puts "new_reader_acquired_while_write_claimed=#{third_reader_acquired}"

if write_granted && third_reader_acquired && (counter_after & Concurrent::ReentrantReadWriteLock::RUNNING_WRITER).zero?
  puts 'result=REPRODUCED write lock granted without setting global writer state'
else
  puts 'result=NOT_REPRODUCED'
end

third_reader.kill
other_reader_stop << :stop
other_reader.kill

Log evidence

ruby=ruby 2.6.10p210 (2022-04-12 revision 67958) [universal.arm64e-darwin25]
concurrent_ruby_version=1.3.6
poc=ReentrantReadWriteLock read-depth overflow grants write lock without exclusivity
other_thread_holds_read_lock=true
main_thread_read_acquisitions=32768
main_thread_held_count=32768
counter_before_try_write=2
running_writer_bit_before=false
try_write_lock_returned=true
counter_after_try_write=2
running_writer_bit_after=false
new_reader_acquired_while_write_claimed=true
result=REPRODUCED write lock granted without setting global writer state

Impact

This breaks the write-lock exclusivity guarantee. After the overflow, a thread can be told it has acquired the write lock while other threads can still hold or acquire read locks, allowing races and inconsistent reads of protected mutable state.

Credit

Pranjali Thakur - depthfirst (depthfirst.com)