@babel/runtime versions 7.24.4 and 7.24.1 represent incremental updates to Babel's collection of modular runtime helpers, essential for executing compiled JavaScript code that leverages modern language features. Both versions maintain the same core functionality, description as "babel's modular runtime helpers", MIT license, and dependency on regenerator-runtime at version "^0.14.0", crucial for supporting async/await and generator functions, ensuring compatibility with older environments. The code lives in the same repository on Github babel/babel, under the packages/babel-runtime directory.
The key difference lies in the release date and associated internal improvements. Version 7.24.4, released on April 3, 2024, is a newer iteration compared to 7.24.1, which was released on March 19, 2024. This means the newer version incorporates bug fixes, performance optimizations, and potentially support for newly introduced ECMAScript features that were absent in the earlier release. While the file count remains the same at 235 for both versions, a slight increase in the unpacked size from 262142 to 262198 in version 7.24.4 suggests minor additions or adjustments within the runtime helpers.
For developers using @babel/runtime, upgrading to the latest version, 7.24.4, is generally recommended to benefit from the most current enhancements and bug resolutions. While the changes may be subtle, these updates contribute to overall stability and performance of Babel-compiled code, ensuring a smoother runtime experience across different JavaScript environments. Always consult the official Babel changelog for a comprehensive list of changes.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 7.24.4 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.