@babel/runtime is a crucial package for developers using Babel, providing modular runtime helpers that enable compiled code to function correctly across different environments. Comparing versions 7.11.0 and 7.10.5 reveals subtle but potentially impactful differences. Both versions share the same core dependencies, relying on regenerator-runtime "^0.13.4" for async/await functionality and @babel/helpers "^7.10.4" for code transformation assistance. The license remains MIT, ensuring broad usability, and the repository details point to the standard Babel GitHub location.
Crucially, version 7.11.0 was released on July 30, 2020, while version 7.10.5 was released on July 14, 2020. The updated version, 7.11.0, boasts a slightly smaller unpacked size of 99757 bytes compared to 7.10.5's 99814 bytes suggesting potential optimizations or refinements in the codebase.
While the file count remains consistent at 165, the updated release date signifies bug fixes, performance tweaks, or compatibility improvements incorporated within the newer version. Developers should prioritize upgrading to version 7.11.0 to benefit from these enhancements which ensures smoother execution of Babel-compiled code and potentially reduces the final bundle size. Although the changes appear marginal understanding the nature of those tiny improvements is key for any developer concerned about maximizing runtime performance and stability. Therefore, staying up-to-date with the latest minor versions of @babel/runtime is a recommended practice.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 7.11.0 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.