CVE-2026-112907

filelock is a platform-independent file lock for Python. From 3.22.0 until 4.2.1, soft lock classes on Windows read an existing marker with _read_lock_file and remove a stale marker through break_lock_file using pathname operations that wait for an oplock break. Another local account with read access to an unheld marker can keep a Level 1 or batch oplock unanswered, causing SoftFileLock.acquire and related async or fallback locks to wait beyond timeout, blocking=False, and cancel_check. A stale marker under the oplock cannot be broken, but mutual exclusion remains intact and no file other than the marker is accessed. This issue is fixed in version 4.2.1.

filelock is a platform-independent file lock for Python. From 3.22.0 until 4.2.1, soft lock classes on Windows read an existing marker with _read_lock_file and remove a stale marker through break_lock_file using pathname operations that wait for an oplock break. Another local account with read access to an unheld marker can keep a Level 1 or batch oplock unanswered, causing SoftFileLock.acquire and related async or fallback locks to wait beyond timeout, blocking=False, and cancel_check. A stale marker under the oplock cannot be broken, but mutual exclusion remains intact and no file other than the marker is accessed. This issue is fixed in version 4.2.1.

On Windows the soft locks (SoftFileLock, MarkerSoftFileLock, SoftFileLease, their async forms, and a FileLock that fell back to a soft lock) read their marker by path. The marker is the lock file whose presence says a process holds the lock. Each acquire() attempt that finds a marker opens it with os.open to read the holder's process id, and the lock renames and deletes a marker it judges stale, by path. On Windows each of these calls waits for an oplock. An oplock (opportunistic lock) is a request by a process that holds a handle on a file to be told before another process opens, renames or deletes that file; the other process waits until the holder answers the break or closes its handle.

Another local account that can open the marker for reading can take a Level 1 oplock on it while no process holds it open, and leave the break unanswered. Every acquire() by the user running the lock (below: the lock user) then waits inside the open, past its timeout, blocking=False and cancel_check, and a stale marker under that oplock is not broken. Mutual exclusion holds and the lock touches no other file. Affected versions are filelock 3.22.0 through 4.2.0 on Windows. The maintainers found this while reviewing the fix for the report Anthropic's OSS Scanner sent on 15 October 2026 (review round 4, finding F4); it is not among the scanner's findings.

Severity

CVSS 3.1 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L scores 2.5 (Low).

AV:L (local): the other account needs a logon on the same host. AC:H (high attack complexity): Windows grants a Level 1 or batch oplock only to the sole open handle on a file, so the marker must have no holder handle when the other account asks. That account cannot bring this about; it waits for a holder that died, closed its descriptor, or left a marker past its lifetime. PR:L (low privileges): an ordinary account with read access to the marker through the directory's inherited ACL (access control list). UI:N (no user interaction). S:U (scope unchanged). C:N and I:N: that account can read the marker's content (process id and host name) anyway, and mutual exclusion holds. A:L (partial availability impact): one thread, or the event loop with run_in_executor=False, waits until the holder answers; 10 s per attempt in the two-account runs, no crash. Metrics in doubt take the lower reading.

Classification from the review: security, conditional on an unheld marker that another account can open.

Scope and preconditions

• Platform and classes: Windows only. SoftFileLock, MarkerSoftFileLock, SoftFileLease, AsyncSoftFileLock and the other async soft locks, and FileLock after its ENOSYS fallback to a soft lock. WindowsFileLock opens its lock file on a separate code path that this advisory does not cover.
• Marker access: the soft locks create the marker with os.open, which on Windows applies no more of mode than the read-only attribute (GHSA-8mx5-7m5m-r77g). The marker carries the lock directory's inheritable entries. Another account that those entries grant read access to new files can open the marker with a read handle that shares read, write and delete.
• Unheld marker: no handle may be open on the marker when the other account requests the oplock. That is a holder that died and left its marker, a holder that closed its descriptor, or a marker whose lifetime has passed. While the holder keeps its handle, the request fails.
• Holder behavior: the other account requests the oplock through an overlapped DeviceIoControl and never acknowledges the break. Windows cancels a thread's pending request when the thread exits, so the holder thread stays alive. A same-account process that answers slowly, such as an indexer, has the same effect for its answer time.
• What the lock user sees: SoftFileLock.acquire(timeout=1) returned Timeout after 10.02 s with the second account's handle. In the same-account probe os.open with O_RDONLY was still…

filelock is a platform-independent file lock for Python. From 3.22.0 until 4.2.1, soft lock classes on Windows read an existing marker with _read_lock_file and remove a stale marker through break_lock_file using pathname operations that wait for an oplock break. Another local account with read access to an unheld marker can keep a Level 1 or batch oplock unanswered, causing SoftFileLock.acquire and related async or fallback locks to wait beyond timeout, blocking=False, and cancel_check. A stale marker under the oplock cannot be broken, but mutual exclusion remains intact and no file other than the marker is accessed. This issue is fixed in version 4.2.1.

filelock is a platform-independent file lock for Python. From 3.22.0 until 4.2.1, soft lock classes on Windows read an existing marker with _read_lock_file and remove a stale marker through break_lock_file using pathname operations that wait for an oplock break. Another local account with read access to an unheld marker can keep a Level 1 or batch oplock unanswered, causing SoftFileLock.acquire and related async or fallback locks to wait beyond timeout, blocking=False, and cancel_check. A stale marker under the oplock cannot be broken, but mutual exclusion remains intact and no file other than the marker is accessed. This issue is fixed in version 4.2.1.

On Windows the soft locks (SoftFileLock, MarkerSoftFileLock, SoftFileLease, their async forms, and a FileLock that fell back to a soft lock) read their marker by path. The marker is the lock file whose presence says a process holds the lock. Each acquire() attempt that finds a marker opens it with os.open to read the holder's process id, and the lock renames and deletes a marker it judges stale, by path. On Windows each of these calls waits for an oplock. An oplock (opportunistic lock) is a request by a process that holds a handle on a file to be told before another process opens, renames or deletes that file; the other process waits until the holder answers the break or closes its handle.

Another local account that can open the marker for reading can take a Level 1 oplock on it while no process holds it open, and leave the break unanswered. Every acquire() by the user running the lock (below: the lock user) then waits inside the open, past its timeout, blocking=False and cancel_check, and a stale marker under that oplock is not broken. Mutual exclusion holds and the lock touches no other file. Affected versions are filelock 3.22.0 through 4.2.0 on Windows. The maintainers found this while reviewing the fix for the report Anthropic's OSS Scanner sent on 15 October 2026 (review round 4, finding F4); it is not among the scanner's findings.

Severity

CVSS 3.1 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L scores 2.5 (Low).

AV:L (local): the other account needs a logon on the same host. AC:H (high attack complexity): Windows grants a Level 1 or batch oplock only to the sole open handle on a file, so the marker must have no holder handle when the other account asks. That account cannot bring this about; it waits for a holder that died, closed its descriptor, or left a marker past its lifetime. PR:L (low privileges): an ordinary account with read access to the marker through the directory's inherited ACL (access control list). UI:N (no user interaction). S:U (scope unchanged). C:N and I:N: that account can read the marker's content (process id and host name) anyway, and mutual exclusion holds. A:L (partial availability impact): one thread, or the event loop with run_in_executor=False, waits until the holder answers; 10 s per attempt in the two-account runs, no crash. Metrics in doubt take the lower reading.

Classification from the review: security, conditional on an unheld marker that another account can open.

Scope and preconditions

• Platform and classes: Windows only. SoftFileLock, MarkerSoftFileLock, SoftFileLease, AsyncSoftFileLock and the other async soft locks, and FileLock after its ENOSYS fallback to a soft lock. WindowsFileLock opens its lock file on a separate code path that this advisory does not cover.
• Marker access: the soft locks create the marker with os.open, which on Windows applies no more of mode than the read-only attribute (GHSA-8mx5-7m5m-r77g). The marker carries the lock directory's inheritable entries. Another account that those entries grant read access to new files can open the marker with a read handle that shares read, write and delete.
• Unheld marker: no handle may be open on the marker when the other account requests the oplock. That is a holder that died and left its marker, a holder that closed its descriptor, or a marker whose lifetime has passed. While the holder keeps its handle, the request fails.
• Holder behavior: the other account requests the oplock through an overlapped DeviceIoControl and never acknowledges the break. Windows cancels a thread's pending request when the thread exits, so the holder thread stays alive. A same-account process that answers slowly, such as an indexer, has the same effect for its answer time.
• What the lock user sees: SoftFileLock.acquire(timeout=1) returned Timeout after 10.02 s with the second account's handle. In the same-account probe os.open with O_RDONLY was still…

filelock is a platform-independent file lock for Python. From 3.22.0 until 4.2.1, soft lock classes on Windows read an existing marker with _read_lock_file and remove a stale marker through break_lock_file using pathname operations that wait for an oplock break. Another local account with read access to an unheld marker can keep a Level 1 or batch oplock unanswered, causing SoftFileLock.acquire and related async or fallback locks to wait beyond timeout, blocking=False, and cancel_check. A stale marker under the oplock cannot be broken, but mutual exclusion remains intact and no file other than the marker is accessed. This issue is fixed in version 4.2.1.