Open the .luac in a hex editor. Look at the first byte:
| Tool | Supported Lua Versions | Strengths | Weaknesses | |------|------------------------|-----------|-------------| | (Java) | 5.1 – 5.4 | Most accurate, actively maintained, handles upvalues, varargs. | No GUI, requires JVM. | | LuaDec (C++/Lua) | 5.1 – 5.3 | Fast, integrates with Lua environment. | Less accurate for complex closures. | | LuaDec51 (Python) | 5.1 only | Simple, good for legacy. | Outdated, no 5.2+ support. | | Frida-lua-decompiler | 5.2+ | In-memory runtime decompilation. | Complex, requires Frida hooks. | | LuaJIT-decompiler | LuaJIT bytecode | Specialized for LuaJIT (used in games like GMod). | Does not support standard Lua bytecode. | decompile luac
Inspired by this discovery, Alex decided to write a tool to automate the analysis of luac files. He named it "Luadec," and set out to implement a disassembler and decompiler for Lua bytecode. Open the
xxd script.luac | head -n 1
allow you to upload a file and receive the source code instantly without installing local environments. Decompiler.com How to Decompile: A Basic Workflow Unscrambling Lua - Daniel Santos 3 Jun 2020 — | | LuaDec (C++/Lua) | 5