@babel/core version 7.1.1 represents a minor update to the core Babel compiler, succeeding version 7.1.0. Both versions share the same fundamental architecture, description ("Babel compiler core"), license (MIT), and repository details, indicating a continued commitment to the project's core principles and open-source nature.
The primary distinctions between the two releases lie within their dependency versions. Version 7.1.1 boasts updated dependencies for several core Babel packages, including @babel/types, @babel/parser, @babel/helpers, @babel/template, and @babel/generator, bringing them up to version 7.1.1, while @babel/traverse moves from 7.0.0 to 7.1.0. This suggests that the update focuses on refinements, bug fixes, or minor feature additions within these specific modules of Babel's compilation pipeline. Developers incorporating @babel/core should generally prefer the newer version (7.1.1) to benefit from these dependency updates, potentially leading to improved accuracy, performance, or compatibility with newer JavaScript syntax and features. Notably, common dependencies such as debug, json5, lodash, semver, resolve, source-map, @babel/code-frame, and convert-source-map remain unchanged, signaling that certain aspects of the core functionality and supporting utility libraries remained stable during this update process. The shift in release date, from September 17th to September 28th, 2018, further emphasizes the recency of the 7.1.1 version.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 7.1.1 of the package
Prototype Pollution in JSON5 via Parse Method
The parse method of the JSON5 library before and including version 2.2.1 does not restrict parsing of keys named __proto__, allowing specially crafted strings to pollute the prototype of the resulting object.
This vulnerability pollutes the prototype of the object returned by JSON5.parse and not the global Object prototype, which is the commonly understood definition of Prototype Pollution. However, polluting the prototype of a single object can have significant security impact for an application if the object is later used in trusted operations.
This vulnerability could allow an attacker to set arbitrary and unexpected keys on the object returned from JSON5.parse. The actual impact will depend on how applications utilize the returned object and how they filter unwanted keys, but could include denial of service, cross-site scripting, elevation of privilege, and in extreme cases, remote code execution.
This vulnerability is patched in json5 v2.2.2 and later. A patch has also been backported for json5 v1 in versions v1.0.2 and later.
Suppose a developer wants to allow users and admins to perform some risky operation, but they want to restrict what non-admins can do. To accomplish this, they accept a JSON blob from the user, parse it using JSON5.parse, confirm that the provided data does not set some sensitive keys, and then performs the risky operation using the validated data:
const JSON5 = require('json5');
const doSomethingDangerous = (props) => {
if (props.isAdmin) {
console.log('Doing dangerous thing as admin.');
} else {
console.log('Doing dangerous thing as user.');
}
};
const secCheckKeysSet = (obj, searchKeys) => {
let searchKeyFound = false;
Object.keys(obj).forEach((key) => {
if (searchKeys.indexOf(key) > -1) {
searchKeyFound = true;
}
});
return searchKeyFound;
};
const props = JSON5.parse('{"foo": "bar"}');
if (!secCheckKeysSet(props, ['isAdmin', 'isMod'])) {
doSomethingDangerous(props); // "Doing dangerous thing as user."
} else {
throw new Error('Forbidden...');
}
If the user attempts to set the isAdmin key, their request will be rejected:
const props = JSON5.parse('{"foo": "bar", "isAdmin": true}');
if (!secCheckKeysSet(props, ['isAdmin', 'isMod'])) {
doSomethingDangerous(props);
} else {
throw new Error('Forbidden...'); // Error: Forbidden...
}
However, users can instead set the __proto__ key to {"isAdmin": true}. JSON5 will parse this key and will set the isAdmin key on the prototype of the returned object, allowing the user to bypass the security check and run their request as an admin:
const props = JSON5.parse('{"foo": "bar", "__proto__": {"isAdmin": true}}');
if (!secCheckKeysSet(props, ['isAdmin', 'isMod'])) {
doSomethingDangerous(props); // "Doing dangerous thing as admin."
} else {
throw new Error('Forbidden...');
}