@babel/runtime is a crucial package for Babel users, providing modular runtime helpers necessary for running transformed code in various environments. Comparing version 7.13.1 with its predecessor, 7.13.0, reveals subtle but potentially important distinctions for developers. Both versions share the same core description: Babel's modular runtime helpers, dependencies (regenerator-runtime":"^0.13.4), license (MIT), repository, and author. The most noticeable difference lies in the dist object, specifically the unpackedSize. Version 7.13.1 boasts an unpacked size of 131001 bytes, a slight increase from 7.13.0's 130758 bytes. This suggests minor additions or changes within the package's files, possibly bug fixes, performance improvements, or the introduction of new helper functions. The release date also differentiates the versions, with 7.13.1 released on 2021-02-23, a day after 7.13.0's release.
For developers, this highlights the importance of staying updated with minor releases like 7.13.1, as they often address critical issues or introduce incremental improvements. While the core functionality remains consistent, the marginal size increase and consecutive release suggest that version 7.13.1 likely includes refinements that enhance stability or runtime behavior. Developers should always check the changelog for comprehensive details about these changes and consider updating to the latest version to benefit from these improvements.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 7.13.1 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.