@babel/runtime is a crucial package for Babel users, providing modular runtime helpers that enable compiled code to function correctly across different JavaScript environments. Comparing versions 7.10.3 and 7.10.4, developers will notice a subtle but potentially significant difference in their development dependencies. Version 7.10.4 relies on @babel/helpers version 7.10.4, while the preceding version, 7.10.3, uses @babel/helpers version 7.10.1. This update to @babel/helpers likely incorporates bug fixes, performance improvements, or new helper functions that directly impact the efficiency and stability of code transpiled by Babel.
While both versions share the same core functionality, description, dependencies on regenerator-runtime, file count, unpacked size, and license, the change in the @babel/helpers dependency suggests underlying enhancements. Developers should consider upgrading to version 7.10.4 to benefit from the potentially improved helper functions and ensure compatibility with the latest Babel ecosystem updates. This seemingly small version bump could translate into smoother and more reliable Babel-powered projects, especially for those utilizing advanced Babel features or targeting older JavaScript environments. The release date difference also signals a focused effort to refine and maintain the library.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 7.10.4 of the package
Babel has inefficient RegExp complexity in generated code with .replace when transpiling named capturing groups
When using Babel to compile regular expression named capturing groups, Babel will generate a polyfill for the .replace method that has quadratic complexity on some specific replacement pattern strings (i.e. the second argument passed to .replace).
Your generated code is vulnerable if all the following conditions are true:
.replace method on a regular expression that contains named capturing groups.replaceIf you are using @babel/preset-env with the targets option, the transform that injects the vulnerable code is automatically enabled if:
You can verify what transforms @babel/preset-env is using by enabling the debug option.
This problem has been fixed in @babel/helpers and @babel/runtime 7.26.10 and 8.0.0-alpha.17, please upgrade. It's likely that you do not directly depend on @babel/helpers, and instead you depend on @babel/core (which itself depends on @babel/helpers). Upgrading to @babel/core 7.26.10 is not required, but it guarantees that you are on a new enough @babel/helpers version.
Please note that just updating your Babel dependencies is not enough: you will also need to re-compile your code.
If you are passing user-provided strings as the second argument of .replace on regular expressions that contain named capturing groups, validate the input and make sure it does not contain the substring $< if it's then not followed by > (possibly with other characters in between).
This vulnerability was reported and fixed in https://github.com/babel/babel/pull/17173.