Version 7.7.0 of @babel/cli, released on November 5, 2019, brings subtle yet significant changes compared to version 7.6.4, released on October 10, 2019. Although the core functionality remains consistent as a command-line interface for Babel, a popular JavaScript compiler, developers should note alterations in the dependency list. The most prominent change is the replacement of the mkdirp dependency with make-dir. While both serve the purpose of creating directories, make-dir is generally considered a more modern and actively maintained alternative.
Furthermore, version 7.7.0 removes the output-file-sync dependency. The removal of output-file-sync suggests a potential shift in how the CLI handles file output operations, possibly integrating the functionality directly or relying on other existing dependencies. Developers upgrading should investigate how file writing or related I/O tasks are now managed. Besides this dependency change, the @babel/core dependency in the devDependencies has been updated from version 7.6.4 to 7.7.0, reflecting the package's intention to align the CLI with the latest core functionalities and bug fixes within the Babel ecosystem. The unpacked size has slightly increased from 34172 to 34669. These underlying dependency adjustments reflect the continuous effort to enhance efficiency and leverage updated tools within the Babel CLI.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 7.7.0 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.
