A small and simple, yet safe Lua Sandbox program. (It is nowhere near "done", it does work tho!)

sandbox.lua

-- Lua Sandbox by CaptainPRICE
-- Last tested: 9 October 2017. [Compiled with LuaJIT 2.0.5, and it works as expected - so far]
-- Please try to BREAK it, NOT CRASH it (using infinite loop or such).
-- Only THE FIRST ONE WILL BE REWARDED, once You send me the Lua Sandbox breaking code!
-- Feel free to report bugs as well.
-- Source: https://gist.github.com/CaptainPRICE/bd19a8b92d9cb8a74329ba8b26d2e2c9
--
-- *great* feature in Lua Sandbox: isolated environment is immutable (so, you can't replace the standard Lua functions/constants/etc).
-- *hidden* feature in Lua Sandbox: calling a `tostring` on a global function will result in the "path" being revealed (works only for global functions).
-- ...more coming soon (find more features by yourself, hehe)...
--
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-- DO NOT EDIT/TOUCH THE CODE BELOW!                                                              --
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if _VERSION ~= "Lua 5.1" then
    return error("unsupported Lua runtime, only Lua 5.1 and LuaJIT are supported")
end
-- Remove potentially dangerous functions. Safely, since they are unused inside Lua Sandbox.
do
    local _math = _G["math"]
    _math["randomseed"] = nil
    local _string = _G["string"]
    _string["dump"] = nil
end
-- Patch the `error`-global function.
do
    local _error = error
    function error(message)
        assert(type(message) == "string")
        return _error(message, 0)
    end
end
-- Patch the `pairs`-iterator function.
do
    local _pairs, debug_getmetatable = pairs, debug.getmetatable
    function pairs(t, ...)
        local mt = debug_getmetatable(t)
        return (mt and mt.__pairs or _pairs)(t, ...)
    end
end
-- Patch the `getmetatable`-global function.
do
    local _getmetatable = getmetatable
    function getmetatable(object)
        if type(object) == "table" then
            return object.__metatable ~= nil and object.__metatable or _getmetatable(object)
        end
        return nil
    end
end
-- Patch the `setmetatable`-global function.
do
    local _setmetatable = setmetatable
    function setmetatable(tbl, metatable)
        assert(type(tbl) == "table" and ((metatable) == nil or type(metatable) == "table"))
        if tbl.__metatable ~= nil then
            return error("cannot change a protected metatable")
        end
        return _setmetatable(tbl, metatable)
    end
end
-- Register a couple of useful table functions.
---Clones the given table.
---@param tbl table
---@param lookup table
---@param maxDepth number
---@param depth number
---@return table
function table.clone(tbl, lookup, maxDepth, depth)
    assert(type(tbl) == "table", string.format("bad argument #%d to 'clone' (table expected, got %s)", 1, type(tbl)))
    if lookup == nil then
        lookup = {}
    end
    assert(type(lookup) == "table", string.format("bad argument #%d to 'clone' (table expected, got %s)", 2, type(lookup)))
    assert(maxDepth == nil or type(maxDepth) == "number", string.format("bad argument #%d to 'clone' (number expected, got %s)", 3, type(maxDepth)))
    if type(maxDepth) == "number" then
        assert(maxDepth > 0, string.format("bad argument #%d to 'clone' (number must be > 0)", 3))
    end
    if depth == nil then
        depth = 0
    end
    assert(type(depth) == "number", string.format("bad argument #%d to 'clone' (number expected, got %s)", 4, type(depth)))
    local copy = {}
    for key, value in pairs(tbl) do
        if type(value) == "table" then
            lookup[tbl] = copy
            if lookup[value] then
                copy[key] = lookup[value]
            elseif not maxDepth or (depth + 1) <= maxDepth then
                copy[key] = table.clone(value, lookup, maxDepth, depth + 1)
            end
        else
            copy[key] = value
        end
    end
    return copy
end
---Merges the `source` table values into the `destination` table.
---@param destination table
---@param source table
---@return table
function table.merge(destination, source)
    assert(type(destination) == "table", string.format("bad argument #%d to 'merge' (table expected, got %s)", 1, type(destination)))
    assert(type(source) == "table", string.format("bad argument #%d to 'merge' (table expected, got %s)", 2, type(source)))
    for key, value in pairs(source) do
        if type(value) == "table" and type(destination[key]) == "table" then
            table.merge(destination[key], value)
        else
            destination[key] = value
        end
    end
    return destination
end
do
    local sandbox_whitelist = {
        --["_G"] = true, -- commented out; changed behaviour
        ["_VERSION"] = true,
        ["assert"] = true,
        --["bit"] = true,
        --["bit32"] = true,
        ["error"] = true,
        ["getmetatable"] = true,
        ["ipairs"] = true,
        ["math"] = {
            ["abs"] = true,
            ["acos"] = true,
            ["asin"] = true,
            ["atan"] = true,
            ["atan2"] = true,
            ["ceil"] = true,
            ["cos"] = true,
            ["cosh"] = true,
            ["deg"] = true,
            ["exp"] = true,
            ["floor"] = true,
            ["fmod"] = true,
            ["frexp"] = true,
            ["huge"] = true,
            ["ldexp"] = true,
            ["log"] = true,
            ["log10"] = true,
            ["max"] = true,
            ["min"] = true,
            ["mod"] = true,
            ["modf"] = true,
            ["pi"] = true,
            ["pow"] = true,
            ["rad"] = true,
            ["random"] = true,
            ["sin"] = true,
            ["sinh"] = true,
            ["sqrt"] = true,
            ["tan"] = true,
            ["tanh"] = true
        },
        ["next"] = true,
        ["pairs"] = true,
        ["pcall"] = true,
        ["print"] = true,
        ["select"] = true,
        ["setmetatable"] = true,
        ["string"] = {
            ["byte"] = true,
            ["char"] = true,
            ["find"] = true,
            ["format"] = true,
            ["gfind"] = true,
            ["gmatch"] = true,
            ["gsub"] = true,
            ["len"] = true,
            ["lower"] = true,
            ["match"] = true,
            ["rep"] = true,
            ["reverse"] = true,
            ["sub"] = true,
            ["upper"] = true
        },
        ["table"] = {
            ["clone"] = true, -- custom
            ["concat"] = true,
            ["foreach"] = true,
            ["foreachi"] = true,
            ["getn"] = true,
            ["insert"] = true,
            ["maxn"] = true,
            ["merge"] = true, -- custom
            ["remove"] = true,
            ["sort"] = true
        },
        ["tonumber"] = true,
        ["tostring"] = true,
        ["type"] = true,
        ["unpack"] = true,
        --["utf8"] = true,
        ["xpcall"] = true
    }
    local _G, SafeTable, function_store_table = table.clone(_G)
    do
        -- Patch the `__tostring` function-metamethod to return the path.
        local debug_getmetatable = debug.getmetatable
        local __function = function() end
        local __FUNCTION = debug_getmetatable(__function) or {}
        __FUNCTION.__index = __FUNCTION.__index or __FUNCTION
        local FUNCTION = __FUNCTION.__index
        debug.setmetatable(__function, __FUNCTION)
        function FUNCTION:__tostring()
            if function_store_table[self] then
                return function_store_table[self]
            end
            local str
            do
                local this = debug_getmetatable(self)
                local cache = this.__tostring
                this.__tostring = nil
                str = tostring(self)
                this.__tostring = cache
            end
            return str
        end
        ---@param name table
        ---@param safeTable table
        ---@return table
        function SafeTable(name, safeTable)
            return setmetatable({}, {
                __metatable = false,
                __tostring = function()
                    return name
                end,
                __index = function(self, key)
                    return (((safeTable[key] == nil) and (rawget(self, key))) or (rawget(safeTable, key)))
                end,
                __newindex = function(self, key, value)
                    -- TODO: Account for new function (and table) value, register it into the function store...
                    return (((safeTable[key] == nil) and (rawset(self, key, value))) or (error(string.format(string.format("index %%s[%%%s] is immutable", type(key) == "string" and "q" or "s"), tostring(self), tostring(key)))))
                end,
                __pairs = function(self, ...)
                    local copy
                    do
                        local this = debug_getmetatable(self)
                        local pairs = this.__pairs
                        this.__pairs = nil
                        copy = table.clone(self)
                        this.__pairs = pairs
                    end
                    return pairs(table.merge(copy, safeTable), ...)
                end
            })
        end
    end
    local SandboxFunctionStore
    ---@param tbl table
    ---@param whitelist table
    ---@param path string
    ---@param done table
    ---@param store table
    ---@return table
    function SandboxFunctionStore(tbl, whitelist, path, done, store)
        path = path or "_G"
        done = done or {}
        store = store or {}
        for key, value in pairs(tbl) do
            if whitelist[key] then
                local p = string.format(string.format("%%s[%%%s]", type(key) == "string" and "q" or "s"), path, tostring(key))
                if type(value) == "table" then
                    if not done[value] then
                        SandboxFunctionStore(value, whitelist[key], p, done, store)
                        done[tbl] = true
                    end
                elseif type(value) == "function" then
                    store[value] = p
                end
            end
        end
        return store
    end
    function_store_table = SandboxFunctionStore(_G, sandbox_whitelist)
    local _env = {}
    -- TODO: Refactor below `_env` initialization code to minimize the duplicate code, and make maintaining more easier.
    for key in pairs(sandbox_whitelist) do _env[key] = _G[key] end
    _env["math"] = SafeTable("_G[\"math\"]", _env["math"])
    _env["string"] = SafeTable("_G[\"string\"]", _env["string"])
    _env["table"] = SafeTable("_G[\"table\"]", _env["table"])
    _env["_G"] = SafeTable("_G", _env)
    collectgarbage()
    setfenv(1, _env["_G"])
end
do
    (function()
        do
            ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
            -- DO NOT EDIT/TOUCH THE CODE ABOVE!                                                              --
            ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
            -- User-Code                                                                                      --
            ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
            local a, b = "Sandbox", "World"
            PI, b = math.pi, "Code"
            print(a, b, PI, PI == _G.PI)
            PI = 9
            print(_G, _G._G, _G._G._G == _G._G._G._G, _G._G.PI)
            --_G._G.print = _G._G.print
            --print = "print!"
            --_G._G.string = ""
            --string = ""
            print((getmetatable(_G)), (getmetatable("")), math, _G.string, _G._G.table, _G.pairs == pairs)
            for key, value in pairs(_G) do _G._G.print(key, value) end
            --for key, value in pairs(math) do _G._G.print(key, value) end
            --for key, value in pairs(string) do _G._G.print(key, value) end
            --for key, value in pairs(table) do _G._G.print(key, value) end
            ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
            -- DO NOT EDIT/TOUCH THE CODE BELOW!                                                              --
            ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
        end
    end)()
    return nil
end
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-- DO NOT EDIT/TOUCH THE CODE ABOVE!                                                              --
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Minor rewrite of Lua Sandbox... I'll update this comment with more details, later a bit.