@babel/cli version 7.6.4 introduces subtle improvements over its predecessor, 7.6.3, offering developers a refined command-line interface for leveraging the power of Babel. While both versions share a similar core functionality, including features like globbing, source map handling, and file system operations, a key difference lies in the dependency on the source-map package. Version 7.6.4 downgrades the source-map dependency to version 0.5.0, while version 7.6.3 utilizes version 0.6.1. This change might influence how source maps are generated and processed, potentially impacting debugging workflows. Developers should be aware of this difference, particularly if they rely heavily on source maps for complex projects. There are no changes in the command-line syntax between the versions.
Both versions depend on @babel/core and require a peer dependency, meaning they need a compatible version of @babel/core (version 7 or above) to function correctly. The core transformation capabilities remain consistent between these releases, ensuring compatibility with existing Babel configurations and plugins. The development dependencies are kept in sync, and the package's overall size is similar across versions. For developers using @babel/cli, consider if source map functionality is important for your workflow before upgrading.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 7.6.4 of the package
Uncontrolled resource consumption in braces
The NPM package braces fails to limit the number of characters it can handle, which could lead to Memory Exhaustion. In lib/parse.js, if a malicious user sends "imbalanced braces" as input, the parsing will enter a loop, which will cause the program to start allocating heap memory without freeing it at any moment of the loop. Eventually, the JavaScript heap limit is reached, and the program will crash.
Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) in micromatch
The NPM package micromatch prior to version 4.0.8 is vulnerable to Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS). The vulnerability occurs in micromatch.braces() in index.js because the pattern .* will greedily match anything. By passing a malicious payload, the pattern matching will keep backtracking to the input while it doesn't find the closing bracket. As the input size increases, the consumption time will also increase until it causes the application to hang or slow down. There was a merged fix but further testing shows the issue persisted prior to https://github.com/micromatch/micromatch/pull/266. This issue should be mitigated by using a safe pattern that won't start backtracking the regular expression due to greedy matching.
