@babel/runtime version 7.24.0 introduces enhancements and refinements over its predecessor, version 7.23.9, targeting developers who rely on Babel's runtime helpers for their JavaScript projects. While both versions share the same core purpose – providing modular runtime helpers for Babel-compiled code – key differences lie in the details. The newer version, released on February 28, 2024 contains 235 files with an unpacked size of 262350 bytes, indicating potentially new helper functions, polyfills, or internal optimizations compared to version 7.23.9, released on January 25, 2024, with 221 files and unpacked size of 248922. Both are still depending on "regenerator-runtime":"^0.14.0". These changes could translate to improved performance, better support for newer JavaScript features, or bug fixes. Developers should particularly note the increased file count, suggesting a more comprehensive suite of runtime helpers being included. The dependency on regenerator-runtime remains consistent, ensuring continued support for asynchronous generators. Upgrading to 7.24.0 allows developers to take advantage of the latest Babel runtime improvements and ensures ongoing compatibility with the evolving JavaScript landscape, also potentially a more robust and optimized runtime environment for their applications, with access to a expanded toolkit of helpers.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 7.24.0 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.