Discourse is an open-source discussion platform. Prior to versions `3.3.4` on the `stable` branch and `3.4.0.beta5` on the `beta` branch, someone who is about to reach the limit of users in a group DM may send requests to add new users in parallel. The requests might all go through ignoring the limit due to a race condition. The patch in versions `3.3.4` and `3.4.0.beta5` uses the `lock` step in service to wrap part of the `add_users_to_channel` service inside a distributed lock/mutex in order to avoid the race condition.
The product contains a concurrent code sequence that requires temporary, exclusive access to a shared resource, but a timing window exists in which the shared resource can be modified by another code sequence operating concurrently.