diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index 248c133967..da009a4a30 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -1574,6 +1574,8 @@ Release 0.23.3 - UNRELEASED
     HDFS-3718. Datanode won't shutdown because of runaway DataBlockScanner
     thread (Kihwal Lee via daryn)
 
+    HDFS-3861. Deadlock in DFSClient (Kihwal Lee via daryn)
+
 Release 0.23.2 - UNRELEASED
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSClient.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSClient.java
index 446dfd51a7..97a146432d 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSClient.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSClient.java
@@ -533,7 +533,7 @@ public class DFSClient implements java.io.Closeable {
    *  until the first output stream is created. The same instance will
    *  be returned until all output streams are closed.
    */
-  public synchronized LeaseRenewer getLeaseRenewer() throws IOException {
+  public LeaseRenewer getLeaseRenewer() throws IOException {
       return LeaseRenewer.getInstance(authority, ugi, this);
   }