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Public proof of conceptFix available

CVE-2021-45985

A public proof of concept exists; no exploitation attested.

  • Published2023-04-10
  • Fixed in5.4.4
  • WeaknessCWE-787

Am I affected?

With a domain, we read the version its public headers and pages expose. A distribution build can carry the fix under an older number.

Description

In Lua 5.4.3, an erroneous finalizer called during a tail call leads to a heap-based buffer over-read.

Timeline

dates in UTC
  1. 2023-04-1009:15CVE publishedNVD

Versions per branch

NVD · OSV
Lua
BranchAffectedFixed in
5.4≥ 5.4.0, < 5.4.45.4.4

as publishedRanges as NVD and OSV publish them; a distribution’s build can be fixed under an older number.

Distribution builds and vendor advisories

Packages from OSV.dev and products from the vendors' CSAF advisories.

version not verifiedVersions not verified: read as OSV.dev and the vendors publish them, not checked against each vendor's release list.

Packages

  • luaopenEuler:22.03-LTS-SP1all versions · fixed in 5.4.3-11.oe2203sp1
  • luaopenEuler:22.03-LTSall versions · fixed in 5.4.3-11.oe2203
  • luaAzure Linux:2all versions · fixed in 5.4.3-5
  • lua5.4Debian:14all versions · fixed in 5.4.4-1
  • lua5.4Debian:13all versions · fixed in 5.4.4-1
  • lua5.4Debian:12all versions · fixed in 5.4.4-1
  • memcachedAzure Linux:2all versions · fixed in 1.6.13-3
  • ntopngAzure Linux:3all versions · fixed in 5.2.1-2

9 more package ranges on OSV.dev

Vendor advisories

Full record on NVD

Fix

  1. Update Lua to 5.4.4

Advisories and patches

Detection

Nuclei template
none so far
ProjectDiscovery
Exploit-DB
no entry
Exploit-DB
Proof of concept
Metasploit modules
none listed
Metasploit Framework

Sources

Identifiers

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Published
2023-04-10
Last Modified
2026-06-17
NVD status
Analyzed
GitHub Advisory
GHSA-pxvf-cp3x-784h

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2021-45985?

In Lua 5.4.3, an erroneous finalizer called during a tail call leads to a heap-based buffer over-read.

Is CVE-2021-45985 actively exploited?

A proof-of-concept exploit exists for CVE-2021-45985, but active exploitation has not been confirmed at this time.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2021-45985?

CVE-2021-45985 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.5 (HIGH severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

Running lua? Hear about its next vulnerability

Surveillance reads the versions in your stack — a domain, a lockfile or a list — checks each CVE against the ranges its sources publish, and alerts you when one you run is exploited or enters CISA KEV. A version it cannot read stays « version not verified ».

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Sources for this record