Date: Sat, 4 Jul 2026 07:47:08 +0000
From: Bertrand Drouvot <bertranddrouvot.pg@gmail.com>
To: pgsql-hackers@lists.postgresql.org
Subject: Fix races conditions in DropRole() and GrantRole()
Message-ID: <aki6fMNLUx6+BR8K@bdtpg>
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Hi hackers,

While working on [1], I observed that DropRole() and GrantRole() have the same
"use stale data after the lock is acquired" issues.

Indeed, DropRole() and GrantRole() resolve the role name to an OID before acquiring
LockSharedObject() on the role. A concurrent session that commits a DROP ROLE
between the read and the lock acquisition leaves the first session acting on a
stale OID.

Examples:

1/ DROP ROLE + concurrent DROP ROLE

CREATE ROLE testrole;
gdb breakpoint at user.c:1198 (before LockSharedObject) on session 1

session 1: DROP ROLE testrole;
session 1 is paused by the breakpoint
session 2: DROP ROLE testrole;
continue session 1 produces:
ERROR: could not find tuple for role 24662

2/ GRANT ROLE + concurrent DROP ROLE

CREATE ROLE testrole;
CREATE ROLE testmember;
gdb breakpoint at user.c:1716 (before LockSharedObject) on session 1

session 1: GRANT testrole TO testmember;
session is paused by the breakpoint
session 2: DROP ROLE testrole;
continue session 1: GRANT ROLE succeeds

It produces an orphaned pg_auth_members entry:

postgres=#   SELECT m.member::regrole, m.roleid, r.rolname
  FROM pg_auth_members m
  LEFT JOIN pg_roles r ON m.roleid = r.oid
  WHERE r.oid IS NULL;
   member   | roleid | rolname
------------+--------+---------
 testmember |  16386 |


The patch attached fixes the races by using the same approach as
RangeVarGetRelidExtended(): It encapsulates name resolution, permission checking
(via a caller-supplied callback), and lock acquisition inside a retry loop driven
by SharedInvalidMessageCounter. If invalidation messages arrive between name
resolution and locking, indicating concurrent DDL, the function retries.

The lock is kept across retries and only released if the name resolves to a
different OID on the next iteration.

Two callbacks are provided:
- RoleNameCallbackForDropRole(): checks current/session user, superuser attribute,
and ADMIN OPTION privilege before locking. This is similar to what DropRole() is
currently doing before LockSharedObject().
- RoleNameCallbackForGrantRole(): calls check_role_membership_authorization() to
verify the current user can grant/revoke membership. This is similar to what GrantRole()
is currently doing before calling AddRoleMems()/DelRoleMems().

DropRole() and GrantRole() now call RoleNameGetOid() with appropriate lock
levels.

Remark:

AlterRole() does not need the fix because it calls CatalogTupleUpdate() on the
pg_authid tuple before AddRoleMems(), which blocks a concurrent DROP ROLE.

[1]: https://postgr.es/m/akZUpiDa1UfmzYxL%40bdtpg

Regards,

-- 
Bertrand Drouvot
PostgreSQL Contributors Team
RDS Open Source Databases
Amazon Web Services: https://aws.amazon.com

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	filename="v1-0001-Add-RoleNameGetOid-with-invalidation-based-retry-.patch"

From 7b7b46ea877dfb7be33b842bf13711adfbbd1b55 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Bertrand Drouvot <bertranddrouvot.pg@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 4 Jul 2026 04:47:22 +0000
Subject: [PATCH v1] Add RoleNameGetOid() with invalidation-based retry loop
 for DropRole()/GrantRole()

DropRole() and GrantRole() resolve the role name to an OID before acquiring
LockSharedObject() on the role. A concurrent session that commits a DROP ROLE
between the read and the lock acquisition leaves the first session acting on a
stale OID.

This commit fixes the races by using the same approach as RangeVarGetRelidExtended():
It encapsulates name resolution, permission checking (via a caller-supplied callback),
and lock acquisition inside a retry loop driven by SharedInvalidMessageCounter.
If invalidation messages arrive between name resolution and locking, indicating
concurrent DDL, the function retries.

The lock is kept across retries and only released if the name resolves to a
different OID on the next iteration.

Two callbacks are provided:
- RoleNameCallbackForDropRole(): checks current/session user, superuser attribute,
and ADMIN OPTION privilege before locking. This is similar to what DropRole() is
currently doing before LockSharedObject().
- RoleNameCallbackForGrantRole(): calls check_role_membership_authorization() to
verify the current user can grant/revoke membership. This is similar to what GrantRole()
is currently doing before calling AddRoleMems()/DelRoleMems().

DropRole() and GrantRole() now call RoleNameGetOid() with appropriate lock
levels.

AlterRole() does not need the fix because it calls CatalogTupleUpdate() on the
pg_authid tuple before AddRoleMems(), which blocks a concurrent DROP ROLE.

Author: Bertrand Drouvot <bertranddrouvot.pg@gmail.com>
Reviewed-by:
Discussion:
---
 src/backend/commands/user.c | 246 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++----------
 src/include/commands/user.h |   9 ++
 2 files changed, 191 insertions(+), 64 deletions(-)
  95.5% src/backend/commands/
   4.4% src/include/commands/

diff --git a/src/backend/commands/user.c b/src/backend/commands/user.c
index be11c49f919..6d8e2fa8813 100644
--- a/src/backend/commands/user.c
+++ b/src/backend/commands/user.c
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@
 #include "miscadmin.h"
 #include "port/pg_bitutils.h"
 #include "storage/lmgr.h"
+#include "storage/sinval.h"
 #include "utils/acl.h"
 #include "utils/builtins.h"
 #include "utils/catcache.h"
@@ -116,6 +117,10 @@ static void plan_recursive_revoke(CatCList *memlist,
 								  bool revoke_admin_option_only,
 								  DropBehavior behavior);
 static void InitGrantRoleOptions(GrantRoleOptions *popt);
+static void RoleNameCallbackForDropRole(const char *rolename, Oid roleid,
+										Oid oldroleid, void *callback_arg);
+static void RoleNameCallbackForGrantRole(const char *rolename, Oid roleid,
+										 Oid oldroleid, void *callback_arg);
 
 
 /* Check if current user has createrole privileges */
@@ -126,6 +131,92 @@ have_createrole_privilege(void)
 }
 
 
+/*
+ * RoleNameGetOid
+ *		Given a role name, look up its OID, lock it, and return the OID.
+ *
+ * This follows the same pattern as RangeVarGetRelidExtended():
+ * name resolution, permission check (via callback), and lock acquisition are
+ * performed inside a retry loop. If invalidation messages arrive during the
+ * process (indicating concurrent DDL), we retry to ensure the name still
+ * resolves to the same OID.
+ *
+ * The callback is invoked before locking, giving callers a chance to check
+ * permissions. It receives the current rolename, the resolved OID, the
+ * previous OID (InvalidOid on first iteration), and a caller-supplied arg.
+ * If the callback raises an error, the function aborts without locking.
+ *
+ * If missing_ok is true and the role does not exist, returns InvalidOid.
+ * Otherwise, raises an error.
+ */
+Oid
+RoleNameGetOid(const char *rolename, LOCKMODE lockmode, bool missing_ok,
+			   RoleNameGetOidCallback callback, void *callback_arg)
+{
+	uint64		inval_count;
+	Oid			roleid;
+	Oid			oldroleid = InvalidOid;
+	bool		retry = false;
+
+	for (;;)
+	{
+		/*
+		 * Remember the current invalidation count so we can detect concurrent
+		 * DDL after locking.
+		 */
+		inval_count = SharedInvalidMessageCounter;
+
+		/* Look up the role name */
+		roleid = get_role_oid(rolename, true);
+
+		if (!OidIsValid(roleid))
+		{
+			if (!missing_ok)
+				ereport(ERROR,
+						(errcode(ERRCODE_UNDEFINED_OBJECT),
+						 errmsg("role \"%s\" does not exist", rolename)));
+			return InvalidOid;
+		}
+
+		/*
+		 * Invoke caller-supplied callback before locking. This is a good
+		 * place to check permissions: we haven't taken the lock yet, but we
+		 * know the OID we intend to lock. If concurrent DDL changes things,
+		 * the callback will be invoked again on the next iteration.
+		 */
+		if (callback)
+			callback(rolename, roleid, oldroleid, callback_arg);
+
+		/*
+		 * If upon retry we get back the same OID, the invalidation messages
+		 * did not change the final answer. So we're done.
+		 *
+		 * If we got a different OID, we've locked the role that used to have
+		 * this name rather than the one that does now. Release the old lock.
+		 */
+		if (retry)
+		{
+			if (roleid == oldroleid)
+				break;
+			UnlockSharedObject(AuthIdRelationId, oldroleid, 0, lockmode);
+		}
+
+		/* Lock the role */
+		LockSharedObject(AuthIdRelationId, roleid, 0, lockmode);
+
+		/* If no invalidation messages were processed, we're done */
+		if (inval_count == SharedInvalidMessageCounter)
+			break;
+
+		/* Something may have changed, retry */
+		retry = true;
+		oldroleid = roleid;
+	}
+
+	return roleid;
+}
+
+
 /*
  * CREATE ROLE
  */
@@ -1090,6 +1181,59 @@ AlterRoleSet(AlterRoleSetStmt *stmt)
 }
 
 
+/*
+ * Before acquiring a role lock for DROP ROLE, check that the role is not the
+ * current/session user and that the caller has sufficient privileges to drop it.
+ */
+static void
+RoleNameCallbackForDropRole(const char *rolename, Oid roleid,
+							Oid oldroleid, void *callback_arg)
+{
+	HeapTuple	tuple;
+	Form_pg_authid roleform;
+
+	if (roleid == GetUserId())
+		ereport(ERROR,
+				(errcode(ERRCODE_OBJECT_IN_USE),
+				 errmsg("current user cannot be dropped")));
+	if (roleid == GetOuterUserId())
+		ereport(ERROR,
+				(errcode(ERRCODE_OBJECT_IN_USE),
+				 errmsg("current user cannot be dropped")));
+	if (roleid == GetSessionUserId())
+		ereport(ERROR,
+				(errcode(ERRCODE_OBJECT_IN_USE),
+				 errmsg("session user cannot be dropped")));
+
+	tuple = SearchSysCache1(AUTHOID, ObjectIdGetDatum(roleid));
+	if (!HeapTupleIsValid(tuple))
+		ereport(ERROR,
+				(errcode(ERRCODE_UNDEFINED_OBJECT),
+				 errmsg("role \"%s\" does not exist", rolename)));
+
+	roleform = (Form_pg_authid) GETSTRUCT(tuple);
+
+	/*
+	 * For safety's sake, we allow createrole holders to drop ordinary roles
+	 * but not superuser roles, and only if they also have ADMIN OPTION.
+	 */
+	if (roleform->rolsuper && !superuser())
+		ereport(ERROR,
+				(errcode(ERRCODE_INSUFFICIENT_PRIVILEGE),
+				 errmsg("permission denied to drop role"),
+				 errdetail("Only roles with the %s attribute may drop roles with the %s attribute.",
+						   "SUPERUSER", "SUPERUSER")));
+	if (!is_admin_of_role(GetUserId(), roleid))
+		ereport(ERROR,
+				(errcode(ERRCODE_INSUFFICIENT_PRIVILEGE),
+				 errmsg("permission denied to drop role"),
+				 errdetail("Only roles with the %s attribute and the %s option on role \"%s\" may drop this role.",
+						   "CREATEROLE", "ADMIN", NameStr(roleform->rolname))));
+
+	ReleaseSysCache(tuple);
+}
+
+
 /*
  * DROP ROLE
  */
@@ -1119,9 +1263,7 @@ DropRole(DropRoleStmt *stmt)
 	{
 		RoleSpec   *rolspec = lfirst(item);
 		char	   *role;
-		HeapTuple	tuple,
-					tmp_tuple;
-		Form_pg_authid roleform;
+		HeapTuple	tmp_tuple;
 		ScanKeyData scankey;
 		SysScanDesc sscan;
 		Oid			roleid;
@@ -1132,71 +1274,27 @@ DropRole(DropRoleStmt *stmt)
 					 errmsg("cannot use special role specifier in DROP ROLE")));
 		role = rolspec->rolename;
 
-		tuple = SearchSysCache1(AUTHNAME, PointerGetDatum(role));
-		if (!HeapTupleIsValid(tuple))
-		{
-			if (!stmt->missing_ok)
-			{
-				ereport(ERROR,
-						(errcode(ERRCODE_UNDEFINED_OBJECT),
-						 errmsg("role \"%s\" does not exist", role)));
-			}
-			else
-			{
-				ereport(NOTICE,
-						(errmsg("role \"%s\" does not exist, skipping",
-								role)));
-			}
+		/*
+		 * Use RoleNameGetOid to resolve the name, check permissions, and lock
+		 * the role atomically with a retry loop. This prevents race
+		 * conditions where a concurrent DROP or ALTER commits between name
+		 * resolution and lock acquisition.
+		 */
+		roleid = RoleNameGetOid(role, AccessExclusiveLock, stmt->missing_ok,
+								RoleNameCallbackForDropRole, NULL);
 
+		if (!OidIsValid(roleid))
+		{
+			/* missing_ok case: role doesn't exist */
+			ereport(NOTICE,
+					(errmsg("role \"%s\" does not exist, skipping",
+							role)));
 			continue;
 		}
 
-		roleform = (Form_pg_authid) GETSTRUCT(tuple);
-		roleid = roleform->oid;
-
-		if (roleid == GetUserId())
-			ereport(ERROR,
-					(errcode(ERRCODE_OBJECT_IN_USE),
-					 errmsg("current user cannot be dropped")));
-		if (roleid == GetOuterUserId())
-			ereport(ERROR,
-					(errcode(ERRCODE_OBJECT_IN_USE),
-					 errmsg("current user cannot be dropped")));
-		if (roleid == GetSessionUserId())
-			ereport(ERROR,
-					(errcode(ERRCODE_OBJECT_IN_USE),
-					 errmsg("session user cannot be dropped")));
-
-		/*
-		 * For safety's sake, we allow createrole holders to drop ordinary
-		 * roles but not superuser roles, and only if they also have ADMIN
-		 * OPTION.
-		 */
-		if (roleform->rolsuper && !superuser())
-			ereport(ERROR,
-					(errcode(ERRCODE_INSUFFICIENT_PRIVILEGE),
-					 errmsg("permission denied to drop role"),
-					 errdetail("Only roles with the %s attribute may drop roles with the %s attribute.",
-							   "SUPERUSER", "SUPERUSER")));
-		if (!is_admin_of_role(GetUserId(), roleid))
-			ereport(ERROR,
-					(errcode(ERRCODE_INSUFFICIENT_PRIVILEGE),
-					 errmsg("permission denied to drop role"),
-					 errdetail("Only roles with the %s attribute and the %s option on role \"%s\" may drop this role.",
-							   "CREATEROLE", "ADMIN", NameStr(roleform->rolname))));
-
 		/* DROP hook for the role being removed */
 		InvokeObjectDropHook(AuthIdRelationId, roleid, 0);
 
-		/* Don't leak the syscache tuple */
-		ReleaseSysCache(tuple);
-
-		/*
-		 * Lock the role, so nobody can add dependencies to her while we drop
-		 * her.  We keep the lock until the end of transaction.
-		 */
-		LockSharedObject(AuthIdRelationId, roleid, 0, AccessExclusiveLock);
-
 		/*
 		 * If there is a pg_auth_members entry that has one of the roles to be
 		 * dropped as the roleid or member, it should be silently removed, but
@@ -1484,6 +1582,21 @@ RenameRole(const char *oldname, const char *newname)
 	return address;
 }
 
+/*
+ * Before acquiring a role lock for GRANT/REVOKE, check that the current user
+ * has authorization to grant/revoke membership in the specified role.
+ */
+static void
+RoleNameCallbackForGrantRole(const char *rolename, Oid roleid,
+							 Oid oldroleid, void *callback_arg)
+{
+	bool		is_grant = *((bool *) callback_arg);
+	Oid			currentUserId = GetUserId();
+
+	check_role_membership_authorization(currentUserId, roleid, is_grant);
+}
+
+
 /*
  * GrantRoleStmt
  *
@@ -1568,9 +1681,14 @@ GrantRole(ParseState *pstate, GrantRoleStmt *stmt)
 					(errcode(ERRCODE_INVALID_GRANT_OPERATION),
 					 errmsg("column names cannot be included in GRANT/REVOKE ROLE")));
 
-		roleid = get_role_oid(rolename, false);
-		check_role_membership_authorization(currentUserId,
-											roleid, stmt->is_grant);
+		/*
+		 * Use RoleNameGetOid to resolve the name, check permissions, and lock
+		 * the role atomically with a retry loop. This prevents race
+		 * conditions where a concurrent DROP commits between name resolution
+		 * and lock acquisition.
+		 */
+		roleid = RoleNameGetOid(rolename, ShareUpdateExclusiveLock, false,
+								RoleNameCallbackForGrantRole, &stmt->is_grant);
 		if (stmt->is_grant)
 			AddRoleMems(currentUserId, rolename, roleid,
 						stmt->grantee_roles, grantee_ids,
diff --git a/src/include/commands/user.h b/src/include/commands/user.h
index 97dcb93791b..17263452250 100644
--- a/src/include/commands/user.h
+++ b/src/include/commands/user.h
@@ -21,6 +21,15 @@
 extern PGDLLIMPORT int Password_encryption; /* values from enum PasswordType */
 extern PGDLLIMPORT char *createrole_self_grant;
 
+/* Callback for RoleNameGetOid, invoked after name resolution but before locking */
+typedef void (*RoleNameGetOidCallback) (const char *rolename, Oid roleid,
+										Oid oldroleid, void *callback_arg);
+
+extern Oid	RoleNameGetOid(const char *rolename, LOCKMODE lockmode,
+						   bool missing_ok,
+						   RoleNameGetOidCallback callback,
+						   void *callback_arg);
+
 /* Hook to check passwords in CreateRole() and AlterRole() */
 typedef void (*check_password_hook_type) (const char *username, const char *shadow_pass, PasswordType password_type, Datum validuntil_time, bool validuntil_null);
 
-- 
2.34.1


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