openresty / openresty/luajit2

luaL_ref() has risks to allocate duplicated id

Open
#240 0 comments 1 reaction 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

Dominant language
C
Stars
1.4k
Forks
252
Avg merge
7d 11h
Merged PRs (30d)
3

Description

We found luaL_unref() does not do validations when called, so when it is called twice or more with the same id, the specific id will add to free list for twice or more. This will cause the succeeding luaL_ref() to allocate duplicated ids.

eg.

int fid = luaL_ref(L, LUA_REGISTRYINDEX); // suppose got: fid=2
... ...
luaL_unref(L, LUA_REGISTRYINDEX, fid); // ok, fid=2 add to free list
luaL_unref(L, LUA_REGISTRYINDEX, fid); // if twice, ok again, fid=2 add to free list
... ...
int id1 = luaL_ref(L, LUA_REGISTRYINDEX); // got: id1=2
... ...
int id2 = luaL_ref(L, LUA_REGISTRYINDEX); // got: id2=2, duplicated
... ...

Contributor guide

No contributing guide indexed for this repository

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by tracing the luaL_unref() and luaL_ref() entry points and the registry free-list handling described in the issue. Reproduce the repeated-unref sequence, then verify that subsequent references receive distinct ids and add regression coverage for the case.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
c, lua
Domain
backend
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.