diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Core_and_Builtins/2025-01-09-23-25-42.gh-issue-128679.Uhblds.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Core_and_Builtins/2025-01-09-23-25-42.gh-issue-128679.Uhblds.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..b510b19a5c5652
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Core_and_Builtins/2025-01-09-23-25-42.gh-issue-128679.Uhblds.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Fix race condition in tracemalloc causing abort.
diff --git a/Python/tracemalloc.c b/Python/tracemalloc.c
index f661d69c0312fa..a48b0fcf4817b3 100644
--- a/Python/tracemalloc.c
+++ b/Python/tracemalloc.c
@@ -538,11 +538,20 @@ tracemalloc_alloc(int use_calloc, void *ctx, size_t nelem, size_t elsize)
         return NULL;
 
     TABLES_LOCK();
-    if (ADD_TRACE(ptr, nelem * elsize) < 0) {
-        /* Failed to allocate a trace for the new memory block */
-        TABLES_UNLOCK();
-        alloc->free(alloc->ctx, ptr);
-        return NULL;
+    /* This operation can be executed outside of GIL protection due to
+       allocations needed for an initial PyGILState_Ensure(). Because of this,
+       tracing may be turned off concurrently in another thread which currently
+       holds the GIL between the initial check of `tracing` variable and here.
+       This is a sanity check to account for this possibility and avoid a
+       potential abort where it can be handled gracefully instead.
+       See gh-128679. */
+    if (tracemalloc_config.tracing) {
+        if (ADD_TRACE(ptr, nelem * elsize) < 0) {
+            /* Failed to allocate a trace for the new memory block */
+            TABLES_UNLOCK();
+            alloc->free(alloc->ctx, ptr);
+            return NULL;
+        }
     }
     TABLES_UNLOCK();
     return ptr;
@@ -963,8 +972,11 @@ _PyTraceMalloc_Stop(void)
     if (!tracemalloc_config.tracing)
         return;
 
-    /* stop tracing Python memory allocations */
+    /* stop tracing Python memory allocations,
+       but not while something might be in the middle of an operation */
+    TABLES_LOCK();
     tracemalloc_config.tracing = 0;
+    TABLES_UNLOCK();
 
     /* unregister the hook on memory allocators */
 #ifdef TRACE_RAW_MALLOC
@@ -1317,6 +1329,12 @@ PyTraceMalloc_Track(unsigned int domain, uintptr_t ptr,
 
     gil_state = PyGILState_Ensure();
 
+    if (!tracemalloc_config.tracing) {
+        /* tracing may have been turned off as we were acquiring the GIL */
+        PyGILState_Release(gil_state);
+        return -2;
+    }
+
     TABLES_LOCK();
     res = tracemalloc_add_trace(domain, ptr, size);
     TABLES_UNLOCK();