CVE-2024-25178: Critical LuaJIT Vulnerability Puts Systems at Risk of Compromise

Overview

In today’s blog, we will delve into the details of a serious vulnerability with the identifier CVE-2024-25178. This vulnerability pertains to LuaJIT, a high-performance Just-In-Time (JIT) compiler for the Lua programming language, and exists in versions up to and including 2.1. This issue is of utmost importance because an attacker exploiting this flaw could potentially compromise a system or lead to data leakage, making this a critical security issue for all systems and applications relying on the affected LuaJIT versions.

Vulnerability Summary

CVE ID: CVE-2024-25178
Severity: Critical (CVSS: 9.1)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Impact: System compromise or data leakage

Affected Products

Product | Affected Versions

LuaJIT | Up to and including 2.1

How the Exploit Works

The vulnerability in LuaJIT stems from an out-of-bounds read error in the stack-overflow handler within lj_state.c. This essentially means that the software reads data past the end, or before the beginning, of the intended buffer. Such behavior can lead to the program crashing, or worse, an attacker gaining the ability to execute arbitrary code, steal data or cause a Denial of Service (DoS).

Conceptual Example Code

This is a conceptual example illustrating how an attacker could potentially exploit the vulnerability. An attacker might send a specially crafted payload to the LuaJIT interpreter, causing it to read out-of-bounds and thus leading to unintended behavior.

-- Malicious Lua code causing stack overflow
function stack_overflow()
return stack_overflow()
end
stack_overflow()

This code, when run on a vulnerable LuaJIT system, would cause a stack overflow, triggering the problematic behavior in the stack-overflow handler.
Please note that this example is highly simplified for illustrative purposes and actual exploitation of this vulnerability would likely require a more sophisticated approach.

Prevention and Mitigation

The best way to mitigate this vulnerability is to apply the vendor-supplied patch. If a patch is not immediately available or cannot be applied straight away, using a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) could serve as a temporary mitigation measure. These systems can be configured to detect and block attempts to exploit this vulnerability, providing an additional layer of security while the patch is being prepared or deployed.